WAR-TIME  FRANCE 

TrfE  STORY  OF  AN  AMERICAN 
COMMISSION  IN  FRANC*. 


MAJOR  K  R.5TODDARD 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

THE  STORY  OF  AN  AMERICAN 
COMMISSION  ABROAD 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

THE  STORY  OF  AN  AMERICAN 
COMMISSION  ABROAD 


BY 
MAJOR  F.  R.  STODDARD,  JR. 


NEW  YORK 

MOFFAT.YARD  AND  COMPANY 

1918 


Copyright,  1918,  by 
MOFFAT,  YARD  &  COMPANY 


DEDICATION 

To  my  Comrades  of  the  VETERAN  CORPS  OF  ARTILLERY  and  the 

NINTH  COAST  ARTILLERY  CORPS  of  the  NEW  YORK  GUARD, 

with  whom  have  been  some  of  my  happiest  associations. 


436073 


INTRODUCTION 

BACK  and  forth  across  the  Atlantic,  ever 
since  the  entrance  of  America  into  the  war, 
there  has  been  a  continuous  procession  of  rep- 
resentative citizens  from  all  the  Allied  coun- 
tries, soldiers,  statesmen,  technical  experts,  and 
business  men,  who  are  forging  the  chain  of 
knowledge  and  understanding  which  will  bind 
us  together  in  a  solid  fellowship  of  efficiency 
and  good-will  for  many  years  to  come.  The 
following  story  is  the  personal  narrative  of  one 
such  commission.  It  is  not  in  any  sense  a  mili- 
tary report,  nor  does  it  touch  upon  anything 
which  can  be  regarded  as  a  military  secret.  It 
is  the  intimate,  informal  story  of  the  adven- 
tures and  the  day  by  day  happenings  of  an 
American  Commission  abroad. 

This  Commission  is,  to  the  best  of  my  be- 
lief, unique  in  the  annals  of  the  Militia  of  the 
United  States.  It  is  the  only  time  that  a 
Board  of  Officers  belonging  to  a  militia  organ- 

vii 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

ization  has  been  sent  with  credentials  from  the 
Federal  government  to  obtain  important  mili- 
tary information. 

The  adventures  of  the  Commission  were 
many.  Captain  Wilder  was  gassed  on  the 
Aisne  front  at  Chemin  des  Dames,  the  first 
man  in  the  uniform  of  an  American  officer  to 
receive  that  unpleasant  distinction.  The  report 
presented  by  Major  Stoddard  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  on  behalf  of  the 
Commission  has  been  the  principal  document 
on  the  subject  in  the  possession  of  the  War  De- 
partment. The  services  of  Lieutenant  Cabot 
Ward  were  of  such  value  that  he  was  per- 
suaded to  remain  in  France  and  was  made  a 
Lieutenant-Colonel  in  the  National  Army. 

As  the  Commanding  Officer  of  the  Ninth 
Coast  Artillery,  N.  Y.  G.,  I  feel  particular 
satisfaction  writing  this  introduction,  and  take 
this  occasion  to  say  a  few  words  about  the  cir- 
cumstances which  led  to  the  sending  of  this 
unusual  mission  and  about  the  regiment  which 
accomplished  such  results. 

What  would  happen  if,  in  some  ingenious 
way,  Germany  should  succeed  in  sending  a 
fleet  of  aircraft  to  bombard  our  seacoast  cities? 
We  sincerely  hope  that  no  such  event  will  ever 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

occur.  But  it  is  a  possibility  and  wars  are  not 
won  by  hopes.  They  are  won  by  those  nations 
who  prepare  in  advance  against  every  con- 
tingency, even  what  Aristotle  calls  "the  im- 
probable possibility."  It  had  occurred  to  a 
number  of  persons  in  this  country  as  early  as 
the  summer  of  1916,  that,  in  case  of  trouble 
with  Germany  or  any  great  foreign  power,  the 
coast  cities  of  the  United  States  might  be 
raided  by  aircraft  and  attacked  in  such  a  way 
that  they  could  not  be  defended  by  the  existing 
coast  artillery. 

In  the  fall  of  that  year,  after  conferences 
with  Major  General  Leonard  Wood,  U.S.A., 
then  commanding  the  Department  of  the  East, 
and  foreign  officers  who  had  had  experience 
with  the  anti-aircraft  artillery,  those  of  us  who 
were  the  active  officers  of  the  Society  of  the 
War  of  1812-Veteran  Corps  of  Artillery,  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  such  defenses  were  nec- 
essary and  should  be  provided  for  the  seacoast 
cities  of  the  United  States. 

We  began  a  campaign  of  recruiting  and  or- 
ganization which  has  culminated  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Ninth  Coast  Artillery  Corps,  New 
York  Guard,  and  the  sending  of  this  important 
commission  abroad.  Early  in  1917  we  began 


x  INTRODUCTION 

recruiting  a  regiment  made  up  of  men,  many 
of  whom  for  one  reason  or  another  were  not 
available  for  service  abroad  but  who  were 
willing  to  perform  the  patriotic  duty  of  filling 
the  place  of  the  old  National  Guard  which 
had  been  called  to  the  Federal  service.  Two 
batteries  were  organized  as  early  as  March 
27th,  1917,  and  by  the  end  of  July  there  were 
1400  men  enlisted  and  organized  into  twelve 
Provisional  Batteries.  We  not  only  recruited 
the  men,  but  we  provided  our  own  equipment 
rifles,  ammunition  and  machine  guns  and,  with 
the  consent  of  the  War  Department,  we  con- 
tracted for  a  three-inch  anti-aircraft  gun  for 
drill  purposes.  Later  most  of  the  personnel 
of  these  batteries  became  the  Ninth  Coast 
Artillery  Corps  of  the  New  York  Guard. 

During  this  time  the  officers  of  the  regi- 
ment were  busily  engaged  in  the  study  and 
investigation  of  all  matters  relating  to  ord- 
nance and  anti-aircraft  artillery,  as  far  as  such 
information  could  be  obtained  in  this  country. 
But  we  soon  became  convinced  that  anti-air- 
craft fighting  was  such  a  new  branch  of  war- 
fare that  the  only  reliable  information  was 
obtainable  through  foreign  sources.  Although 
the  War  Department  and  the  United  States 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

Navy  offered  us  every  assistance  and  gave  us 
access  to  their  confidential  documents,  it  be- 
came very  clear  that  if  we  wanted  complete 
information  on  how  to  defend  our  coast  cities 
against  German  aircraft  it  would  be  necessary 
to  send  and  get  it  from  abroad. 

At  the  request  of  Major  General  J.  Frank- 
lin Bell,  U.S.A.,  the  Governor  of  New  York 
State  directed  that  three  officers  selected  by 
me  from  the  regiment  go  to  France  and  Eng- 
land, to  make  a  study  of  anti-aircraft  artillery, 
and  bring  back  a  report.  I  chose  the  best  men 
I  could  find  for  the  work.  The  Senior  Officer, 
the  author  of  this  book,  was  Major  Francis  R. 
Stoddard,  Jr.,  who  was  then  in  command  of 
the  Second  Battalion  of  the  regiment,  having 
served  in  the  United  States  Artillery  during 
the  war  with  Spain  and  on  the  Mexican  bor- 
der. The  others  were  Captain  Robert  H. 
Wilder,  a  distinguished  engineer  and  a  special- 
ist in  shells  and  fuses,  and  Lieutenant  Cabot 
Ward,  Adjutant  of  the  Second  Battalion,  a 
man  of  the  widest  diplomatic  experience,  hav- 
ing been  Secretary  of  State  for  Porto  Rico, 
President  of  the  Senate  and  Acting  Governor 
of  Porto  Rico,  and  Minister  and  Special  Rep- 


»i  INTRODUCTION 

resentative  of  the  United  States  to  various 
South  American  Republics. 

Through  the  kindly  assistance  of  Captain 
George  W.  Burleigh,  later  Lieutenant-Colonel 
of  the  regiment,  many  preliminary  difficulties 
were  overcome,  and  the  Commission  sailed  on 
August  29th,  beginning  a  journey  which  the 
personal  reminiscences  in  this  book  recount. 

The  Commission  brought  back  a  report 
which  is  the  principal  authority  now  in  use  in 
the  United  States  on  the  materiel  and  conduct 
of  anti-aircraft  artillery.  It  is  a  most  difficult 
form  of  gunnery,  as  it  involves  the  destruction 
of  targets  moving  with  incredible  speed  and 
rapidly  changing  position  in  three  dimensions 
of  space  at  high  altitudes. 

The  personnel  of  the  Board  has  not  disap- 
pointed my  choice.  Major  Stoddard,  as  Com- 
manding Officer,  performed  his  duties  with 
unusual  ability.  Captain  Wilder,  with  his 
engineering  experience  and  technical  skill, 
obtained  in  a  very  short  time  exactly  the  infor- 
mation desired,  data  which  it  would  ordinarily 
have  taken  a  much  longer  time  to  collect. 
Lieut.  Cabot  Ward  with  skill  and  tact  over- 
came difficulties  and  obstructions  which  with- 
out his  aid  would  have  been  insurmountable 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

and  in  all  probability  would  have  defeated  the 
purpose  of  the  mission. 

JOHN  Ross  DELAFIELD, 
Colonel,  Ninth  Coast  Artillery  Corps, 
New  York  Guard. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

/ 

CHAPTER  PAOB 

I    WE  ARE  OFF 1 

II    PASSENGERS  AND  SUBMARINES     ...  11 

III  THE  SPY  BARRIER 17 

IV  EN  ROUTE  FOR  PARIS 23 

V    WARTIME  IN  THE  FRENCH  CAPITAL       .  29 

IV  GENERAL  PERSHING  SEES  Us  THROUGH  41 

VII  THE  ARTILLERY  SCHOOL 49 

VIII  THE  GREATEST  SPORT  IN  THE  WORLD  .  55 

IX    IN  MID-CHANNEL      ......  63 

X  LONDON  IN  WARTIME 71 

XI  AIR-RAIDS  AND  COURAGE 79 

XII  WITH  THE  BRITISH  BATTERIES  ...  91 

XIII  WHAT  TO  DO  IN  AN  AIR  RAID     ...  99 

XIV  THE  BRAVEST  OF  THE  BRAVE     ...  105 
XV    AMERICANS  WITH  THE  CANADIANS  .     .  115 

XVI    ON  THE  SOMME  119 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVII    WITH  "BYNG  OF  CAMBRAI"    ....  127 

XVIII     STORIES  FROM  THE  TRENCHES     .     .     .  135 

XIX    THE  FRENCH  FRONT  ON  THE  AISNE     .  143 

XX    FIGHTING  AT  CHEMIN  DBS  DAMES     .     .  153 

XXI    THE  CAPTAIN  is  GASSED      ....  161 

XXII    WHAT  FRANCE  THINKS 167 

XXIII  THE    TRUTH    ABOUT    GERMAN    ATROCI- 

TIES      175 

XXIV  THE  ENEMY  IN  THE  HOUSE       ...  187 
XXV    WE  HAVE  COME  195 


CHAPTER  I 

WE  ARE  OFF 

IT  WAS  midnight  and  the  great  port  was 
buried  in  darkness,  when  at  last  the  bells 
sounded  for  departure  and  we  said  good-bye  to 
those  few  of  our  friends  who,  after  four  days 
of  delay  and  uncertainty,  had  come  down  to 
bid  us  farewell  once  more,  and  to  see  us  safely 
on  our  way  to  France.  The  mountainous  piles 
of  cargo  had  been  stowed  aboard.  A  varied 
group  of  military  men  and  civilians  was  gath- 
ered at  the  rail  when  the  great  ship,  casting  its 
moorings,  slipped  out  in  silence  and  in  dark- 
ness to  begin  the  perilous  voyage  through  the 
lurking  submarine  danger  of  the  wartime 
Atlantic.  ij 

There  were  three  of  us  in  the  party,  Captain 
Wilder,  Captain  Ward  and  myself.  We  were 
on  our  way  to  Europe  to  gather  information 
on  the  defence  of  American  cities  against 
enemy  aircraft.  What  has  happened  to  Eng- 
land can  well  be  an  object  lesson  to  the  United 
States ;  and  fortunately  for  America,  there  are 


2  '  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

Army  officers  who  are  taking  no  chances.  It 
is  thus  that  we  received  our  opportunity  to 
render  what  service  we  could  to  our  country  in 
the  expedition  upon  which  we  were  setting 
forth.  Our  ship  swung  down  the  harbor.  I 
looked  back  at  the  towers  and  pinnacles  of 
Manhattan,  silhouetted  against  the  starry  sky, 
and  offered  up  a  prayer  that  our  trip  might 
add  one  more  stone  to  the  wall  of  safety  that 
we  are  building  around  so  dear  and  beautiful 
a  land. 

We  were  sailing  directly  for  France,  and 
our  chances  of  being  submarined  were  not 
great.  The  line  on  which  we  were  sailing  had, 
up  to  that  time,  been  comparatively  immune 
from  attack.  There  were  many  speculations  as 
to  this  immunity.  Some  said  that  the  German 
Emperor  owned  a  large  amount  of  stock  in  the 
company.  Some  said  that  it  was  the  Pope  who 
owned  the  stock,  and  still  others  believed  that 
Germany  had  used  this  line  for  sending  her 
spies  back  and  forth  across  the  Atlantic. 
Whatever  the  reason  may  have  been,  the  idea 
was  comforting. 

As  it  was  midnight  when  we  sailed,  we  re- 
tired promptly  to  our  cabins  to  arrange  for  the 
voyage.  Captain  Wilder  is  a  skeptic,  and 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  3 

before  he  had  unpacked  his  belongings  he  pro- 
duced a  tape-measure  from  one  of  his  pockets 
and  carefully  measured  the  port  hole  to  see 
whether,  in  case  we  were  submarined,  we 
could  escape  by  that  route.  He  decided  that 
we  could  not,  and  while  I  am  not  a  nervous 
man,  I  confess  to  a  qualm  of  misgiving  at  the 
picture  which  he  so  vividly  suggested  of  a 
listed  boat,  sinking  rapidly,  a  jammed  door 
and  a  porthole  through  which  there  could  be 
no  escape.  We  had  brought  with  us,  at  the 
urgence  of  our  friends,  some  very  complete 
and  adequate  life-preservers,  but  when  morn- 
ing came  and  we  realized  how  many  women 
were  on  the  passenger-list,  we  saw  little  chance 
of  wearing  them  in  case  of  disaster. 

That  passenger-list  was  the  most  amazing 
that  I  have  ever  seen  on  any  ocean  voyage. 
There  were  uniforms  of  every  hue  and  rank. 
There  were  civilians,  both  men  and  women,  of 
every  nationality  and  walk  of  life.  No  one  is 
allowed  a  passport  in  wartime,  unless  he  has 
an  errand  of  great  importance,  and  most  of 
the  passengers  were  on  some  mission  con- 
nected with  the  war.  Many  of  the  civilians 
appeared  after  the  boat  had  sailed  in  the  uni- 


4  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

forms  of  Red  Cross  officers  of  high  rank.  We 
took  them  at  first  to  be  British  officers.  One 
in  the  uniform  of  a  Lieutenant-Colonel,  I  em- 
barrassed greatly  by  saluting.  I  thought  at 
the  time  that  it  was  inadvisable  to  give  mili- 
tary rank  to  Red  Cross  officers,  but  when  we 
arrived  on  the  other  side  and  I  saw  the  amount 
of  "red  tape"  that  a  uniform  can  obviate,  I 
appreciated  the  wisdom  of  so  doing. 

There  were  on  board  officers  of  several  of 
our  Allied  countries.  There  were  some  Amer- 
icans on  special  missions  to  the  front.  There 
were  women  in  the  neat  dark  uniforms  of  the 
canteen  worker,  and  there  were  a  number  of 
men  in  the  uniform  of  British  privates, 
who  turned  out  to  be  American  Ambulance 
drivers.  These  men  surprised  us  very  much  at 
first  by  not  saluting,  but  the  mystery  was 
solved  on  the  second  day  out  when  one  of  their 
number  approached  me,  apologizing  for  the 
unintentional  discourtesy,  and  explained  that 
it  was  because  none  of  them  knew  how  to 
salute.  They  asked  me  if  I  would  be  willing 
to  give  them  instruction,  so,  from  two  until 
three-thirty  every  day,  I  drilled  them  in  the 
school  of  soldier,  squad,  and  company,  close 
order.  The  life  of  these  Ambulance  men  was 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  5 

by  no  means  a  bed  of  roses.  There  has  been  a 
time  when  the  American  Ambulance  drivers 
have  been  criticized  because  they  had  spent 
too  much  time  in  the  bar,  but  there  could  be  no 
complaint  of  the  conduct  of  the  men  on  our 
boat.  From  nine  until  ten-thirty  they  studied 
French,  from  two  until  three-thirty  I  drilled 
them,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  a  Red 
Cross  surgeon  lectured  to  them  on  surgical 
dressings,  bandages  and  first  aid.  By  bed- 
time they  were  ready  for  sleep. 

These  American  Ambulance  Service  men 
have  been  among  the  best  men  sent  over  by 
us  during  this  war.  At  first  there  were  young 
college  men  who  did  not  wish  to  give  up  their 
citizenship  by  joining  the  army  of  another 
nation,  but  who,  nevertheless,  felt  called  by  the 
wrongs  of  suffering  humanity  to  do  their  "bit" 
in  the  war.  When  we  entered  the  war  against 
Germany  most  men  of  this  type  went  to  the 
Officers'  Training  Camps,  but  there  were 
some  who  continued  to  enter  the  Ambulance 
Service.  Those  on  our  boat  were  mostly  men 
who  had  been  registered  by  the  Army  as 
physically  unfit,  or  married  men,  with  fami- 
lies, who  did  not  feel  that  they  could  offer 
their  services  for  more  than  six  months.  Some 


6  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

of  them  hoped  later  to  enter  the  French  mili- 
tary service  where  the  physical  standard  is  not 
as  high  as  in  our  own  army,  and  where  they 
can  become  officers. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  experience  of 
many  of  these  men,  after  their  arrival  in 
France,  was  most  unpleasant.  The  American 
Ambulance  service  had  advertised  during  the 
summer  for  volunteers  for  service  and  enlist- 
ments for  six  months.  Many  men  with  their 
families  dependent  upon  them  for  support  had 
arranged  their  business  so  they  could  be  absent 
for  that  time,  but  when  they  arrived  in  France 
they  were  told  that  they  must  enter  as  privates 
in  the  United  States  Medical  Corps  for  the 
duration  of  the  war.  Some  did  this,  but  others 
preferred  to  return  to  America  and  try  again 
to  enter  a  training  camp,  as  not  being  medical 
men,  they  would  have  little  chance  for  ad- 
vancement if  they  remained  in  that  service. 

As  on  every  ocean  voyage  and  in  spite  of  the 
submarine  menace,  there  was  much  to  enter- 
tain and  divert  us.  In  order  to  raise  money 
for  the  wounded  soldiers,  a  noted  Italian 
painter  offered  to  do  a  portrait  of  the  most 
beautiful  lady  on  board.  It  was  decided  to 
take  a  vote  of  the  passengers  as  to  which  lady 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  7 

should  be  asked  to  sit  for  the  picture.  There 
was  a  very  charming  young  woman,  a  moving- 
picture  actress,  on  her  way  to  fill  an  engage- 
ment in  Italy.  Although  she  had  been  very 
retiring  and  had  avoided  making  promiscuous 
acquaintances,  it  got  rumored  about  that  she 
was  going  to  try  to  win  the  prize.  For  a  time 
the  first  cabin  seethed  with  excitement. 
Friends  would  not  speak  to  each  other  as  they 
passed  on  deck.  Factions  sprang  up  for  and 
against  the  young  woman.  It  was  the  sort  of 
situation  that  almost  always  arises  when 
strangers  are  kept  together  incommunicado  for 
some  time.  Of  course  the  young  lady  with- 
drew from  the  contest.  But  even  so,  the  wrath 
of  the  other  passengers  was  not  abated  until 
the  ballots  were  counted  and  it  was  found  that 
she  had  received  no  votes  whatever.  The  win- 
ner of  the  contest  was  a  negro  nursemaid.  It 
added  greatly  to  the  gaiety  of  the  rest  of  the 
trip  to  watch  the  struggles  of  the  poor  artist 
as  he  manfully  tried  to  paint  the  ebony  fea- 
tures of  "the  most  beautiful  lady  on  board." 
This  same  painter  we  found  most  intelligent. 
What  he  had  to  say  about  America  and  the 
Americans  interested  us  all  very  much.  "Were 
I  not  an  Italian,"  he  said,  "I  would  like  to  be 


8  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

an  American.  I  believe  that  the  United  States 
will  become  eventually  the  greatest  power  in 
the  world,  and  history  shows  that  such  will  be 
the  case.  Power  has  gone  constantly  through 
the  ages  to  the  new  nations  whose  populations 
come  from  mixed  stocks  to  the  west  of  what 
was  the  old  civilized  world.  For  instance, 
Greece  was  a  new  nation.  Foreign  stock  came 
to  her,  and  from  the  mixture  was  evolved  a 
virile  type  of  men  who  eventually  dominated 
the  world.  Then  Italy  was  a  new  country  to 
the  west.  Greeks  and  men  from  all  nations 
went  there  and  settled,  and  Rome  conquered 
the  world.  The  mixture  of  races  in  Italy 
evolved  a  virile  type  of  men  who  brought 
about  the  Renaissance  that  awoke  the  world  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  When  Rome  was  in  power 
Iberia  was  a  new  country  to  the  west.  She 
was  conquered  and  re-conquered  and  alien 
races  came,  mixed  and  remained;  and  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  Spain  was  the  greatest  power  in 
the  world.  And  now  to  the  west  of  Europe, 
the  present  center  of  the  civilized  world,  is 
the  new  western  country,  the  United  States, 
settled  by  men  of  many  races  whose  blood  is 
being  mixed  in  their  descendants,  and  now 
that  she  is  being  awakened  to  the  fact  that  she 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  9 

can  become  a  world  power,  it  is  only  a 
question  of  time  when  she  will  dominate  the 
earth." 

Exactly  opposite  opinions  were  expressed  by 
a  French  Lieutenant  who  sat  with  us  at  the 
Captain's  table,  where  Captain  Ward  had  ar- 
ranged the  seats  for  us.  He  delighted  in  con- 
demning the  United  States  and  everything 
American,  and  was  particularly  scathing  on 
the  subject  of  American  women.  He  insisted 
that  they  had  the  worst  manners  in  the  world 
because  he  had  often  seen  them  put  salt  and 
pepper  in  soup  without  first  tasting  the  soup. 
This  same  Lieutenant  used  to  appear  at  break- 
fast in  an  entrancing  pair  of  purple  pajamas, 
and  his  anger  against  American  women  was 
not  at  all  abated  because  some  of  the  ladies  on 
board  asked  him  to  wear  at  least  a  bathrobe, 
which  he  refused  to  do.  Imagine  our  distress 
upon  arriving  at  the  port,  to  discover  that 
the  poor  man  was  an  invalid  suffering  severely 
from  shell  shock  and  that  his  curious  behavior, 
at  which  we  had  laughed  all  the  way  over,  was 
a  manifestation  of  his  mental  trouble.  That  is 
war :  comedy  and  tragedy  crowding  each  other 
side  by  side,  some  of  the  saddest  situations 
being  also  some  of  the  funniest. 


CHAPTER  II 

PASSENGERS  AND  SUBMARINES 

To  SAY  that  we  were  not  afraid  of  sub- 
marines would  be  untrue  and  indeed  unnat- 
ural. Courage  is  not  absence  of  fear,  but  the 
overcoming  of  fear.  It  is  a  common  saying  in 
the  Army  that  there  is  something  seriously 
wrong  with  a  soldier  who  is  not  frightened 
during  his  first  engagement.  In  a  much  lesser 
degree  this  is  also  true  of  an  ocean  passage 
through  the  submarine  zone.  We  have  all 
heard  of  the  atrocities  committed  by  Germans 
against  merchant  and  passenger  vessels.  Be- 
fore our  trip  I  discounted  most  of  these  tales; 
after  our  stay  abroad  I  believed  them  all,  and 
was  ready  to  believe  yet  more.  Each  one  of 
the  passengers  wondered  whether  his  state- 
room was  the  most  likely  to  be  first  struck  and 
what  the  sensation  would  be  when  the  torpedo 
arrived.  We  soon  found  from  old  ocean  travel- 
lers the  secret  of  not  being  worried  about  sub- 
marines ;  it  was  just  to  forget  all  about  them. 
And  yet  one  could  not  forget  all  about  them, 


12  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

for  evidences  of  expected  attack  were  all 
about.  The  life  boats,  loaded  with  casks  of 
water  and  provisions,  swung  out  from  their 
davits  ready  to  be  lowered  at  a  moment's 
notice.  Each  passenger  was  assigned  to  a  boat 
and  boat  drills  in  life  preservers  were  held. 
At  night,  all  ports  were  closed  and  dark  cloths 
prevented  the  light  from  companionways 
being  seen  from  without.  The  lighting  of 
matches  and  smoking  on  the  decks  was  for- 
bidden. During  the  last  two  nights  passengers 
were  requested  not  to  remove  their  clothes. 
Many  passengers  slept  all  night  on  deck  in 
their  chairs  with  life  preservers  next  them. 
The  gun  crews  were  ready  by  their  uncovered 
guns. 

The  third  day  out  a  lookout  reported  that 
he  saw  a  periscope  and  the  ship  started  away 
in  the  other  direction,  taking  a  zig-zag  course. 
Later  a  vessel  passed  in  the  distance  but  no 
signals  were  exchanged.  One  day  the  smoke 
of  a  vessel,  going  very  fast,  was  seen.  Some 
passengers  said  they  could  see  firing  through 
their  glasses.  It  was  probably  merely  a  sub- 
marine chaser  on  its  rounds. 

We  were  told  that  at  night  came  the  most 
danger;  then  the  submarine  comes  to  the  sur- 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  13 

face  and  watches  for  its  victim.  When  the  vic- 
tim is  located,  the  submarine  submerges  and, 
going  towards  it,  sinks  it  during  the  dim  hours 
of  the  early  morning.  In  the  submarine  zone, 
however,  all  hours  seem  dangerous.  The  cap- 
tain of  the  boat  did  not  have  much  sympathy 
for  nervous  people,  however.  To  one  anxious 
lady  who  inquired  whether  he  thought  that  the 
vessel  would  be  torpedoed  by  a  submarine,  he 
answered,  "Madame,  I  have  a  presentment 
that  we  shall  never  reach  port  safely,  and  my 
presentments  always  come  true." 

The  most  unpopular  passenger  on  board  for 
a  time  was  a  moving-picture  operator  whose 
specialty  was  to  crawl  out  under  fire  and  take 
scenes  of  actual  fighting  on  the  battle  field.  It 
was  rumored  among  the  passengers  that  he  had 
said  he  hoped  the  boat  would  be  torpedoed  and 
sunk  in  order  that  he  might  get  a  picture  of  it 
going  down.  He  later  denied  that  he  wished 
the  boat  would  be  sunk,  but  I  found  that  when 
he  made  his  denial  he  had  found  that  he  could 
not  get  his  camera  and  film  from  the  hold. 
Whatever  may  be  the  true  facts  of  the  case,  his 
denial  restored  him  to  the  favor  of  the  other 
passengers. 

For  excitement  and  the  pleasure  of  the  other 


14  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

passengers,  the  moving-picture  actress  and  I 
agreed  to  fall  overboard  on  arrival  in  port, 
with  our  patent  life  preservers,  but  alas!  for 
our  dramatic  plans, — the  Captain  refused  to 
allow  it,  giving  as  his  reasons,  first,  that  the 
current  would  carry  us  out  to  sea ;  second,  that 
the  place  was  full  of  sharks,  and,  third,  that 
the  boat  would  go  away  and  leave  us.  One  of 
the  ship's  officers  dryly  suggested  that  the  lady 
and  I  test  our  life  preservers  in  the  bath  tub. 

There  are  three  ways  used  by  vessels  to 
avoid  submarines;  convoys,  speed  and  faith. 
The  vessel  upon  which  we  were,  trusted  mainly 
to  the  latter,  for  certainly  speed  was  not  one  of 
its  qualities.  Most  of  the  passengers  agreed 
towards  the  end  of  the  voyage  that  no  convoy 
was  needed,  for  the  Germans,  out  of  respect 
for  old  age,  would  certainly  never  waste  a  tor- 
pedo on  such  an  antiquated  boat. 

Few  vessels  going  across  the  ocean  take  a 
straight  course.  Some  start  as  if  they  were  go- 
ing on  an  Arctic  expedition,  while  others  aim 
for  the  equatorial  climes;  most  combine  both 
trips  during  the  voyage.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
the  journey  that  formerly  took  an  ocean  liner 
five  days,  is  now  strung  out  to  anywhere  from 
nine  to  sixteen  or  more  days.  The  submarine 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  15 

menace  is  real,  and  ship  captains  appreciate  it. 

During  the  last  days,  no  men  in  uniform 
were  permitted  on  deck.  When  two  days  from 
our  destination,  a  full-rigged  sailing  vessel 
with  three  masts  passed,  going  in  the  opposite 
direction,  and  the  hearts  of  all  were  glad  that 
she  had  found  the  way  clear.  Soon  the  exulta- 
tion subsided,  for  we  began  to  pass  wreckage 
and  a  life  buoy.  Late  in  the  afternoon  a  war 
vessel  approached  and  cheers  rang  out  as  she 
raised  the  French  flag  at  her  stern.  After  sig- 
nalling vigorously,  she  kept  on  to  sea  in  pur- 
suit of  a  distant  freighter.  On  the  morning  of 
the  last  day,  while  most  of  the  passengers  were 
writing  letters  telling  that  they  had  arrived 
safely,  our  real  trouble  began. 

It  seems  that  three  submarines  had  made 
their  way  into  a  certain  harbor  and  had  sunk 
two  fishing  vessels  of  the  fishing  fleet  before 
being  driven  to  submerge  by  the  submarine 
chasers.  Soon  all  the  instrumentalities  used 
for  locating  and  fighting  submarines  were  in 
action,  and  into  the  midst  of  the  excitement  our 
venerable  vessel  calmly  steamed.  All  about 
our  ship  were  submarine  chasers  watching 
here,  there  and  everywhere  for  the  vanished 
submarine.  On  the  distant  horizon  other 


16  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

chasers  could  be  seen  dimly.  Overhead  aero- 
planes were  whirling  round  and  round,  as  a 
submarine  can  sometimes  be  seen  very  high  in 
the  air  when  it  cannot  be  seen  from  the  surface 
of  the  water.  High  in  the  air  at  one  side  was 
a  great  dirigible  balloon.  When  at  last  we 
arrived  in  the  harbor  we  learned  that  two 
vessels  just  preceding  us  had  been  sunk,  and 
the  one  just  behind. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  SPY  BARRIER 

THE  French  system  for  guarding  against 
spies  is  extraordinarily  efficient.  I  sincerely 
trust  that  our  own  country  has  by  this  time 
developed  as  good  a  one.  No  one  is  allowed 
to  land  in  France  without  a  properly  vised 
passport,  and  no  one  is  allowed  to  leave  the 
country  without  an  equally  careful  checking 
up  of  credentials.  As  we  were  carrying  diplo- 
matic passports,  and  as  in  dealing  with  gov- 
ernment officials  Captain  Ward  is  one  of  the 
cleverest  men  I  have  ever  met,  we  had  little 
difficulty  ourselves.  Not  so  the  other  pas- 
sengers, some  of  whom  were  not  as  discreet  as 
they  should  have  been. 

Once  in  the  boat  and  during  the  trip,  one  is 
apt  to  forget  passports  and  their  necessity. 
Once  during  the  voyage  a  woman  who 
claimed  to  be  American,  entered  into  a  violent 
tirade  in  my  presence  against  Britain  and  the: 
British.  I  suggested  to  her  that  Germany 
might  have  attacked  the  United  States  long; 


18  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

before,  were  it  not  for  fear  of  Britain's  inter- 
ference. "Nonsense,"  she  cried,  "Germany 
never  intended  to  attack  us."  I  told  her  that 
I  disagreed  with  her,  and  thereupon  changed 
the  subject.  I  thought  no  more  of  this  inci- 
dent until  we  arrived  in  port. 

Before  the  boat  docked,  officials  boarded 
and  it  was  announced  that  passports  would  be 
vised  on  the  upper  deck.  It  happened  that  we 
were  waiting  our  turn  in  line  when  the  anti- 
British  lady  presented  her  passport.  It  was 
retained  by  one  of  the  officials  who  told  her  to 
sit  down  and  wait.  Later  we  learned  that  she 
was  made  to  disrobe  in  her  stateroom  and 
everything  she  had  was  searched  before  she 
was  permitted  to  leave  for  her  destination.  It 
was  a  good  lesson  to  travellers  whose  loyalty 
is  not  above  reproach. 

It  is  quite  true  that  women  make  the  most 
dangerous  spies,  because  they  are  hard  to  de- 
tect in  their  work,  and  the  United  States,  as 
well  as  France  and  Britain,  is  undoubtedly 
filled  with  women  spies.  It  is  a  little  hard  to 
understand  the  distinction  that  prevents  the 
Anglo-Saxon  countries  from  executing  women 
spies.  The  French  have  no  such  scruples.  On 
all  trains  in  the  subways  and  in  all  public 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  19 

gathering  places  all  over  France,  there  is 
prominently  displayed  a  sign 

TAISSEZ  VOUS. 

MEFIEZ  VOUS. 

LES  OREILLES  ENEMI  • 

VOUS  ACCOUTENT. 

Which  means:  "Take  care,  and  look  out.  The 
ears  of  the  enemy  hear  you."  It  is  a  good  sign 
and  a  good  rule,  and  might  well  be  imitated 
in  America. 

Our  little  friend,  the  moving-picture  ac- 
tress, nearly  came  to  grief,  because  although 
she  was  scheduled  to  go  to  Italy,  she  decided 
that  she  would  accept  the  invitation  of  friends 
to  spend  a  few  days  in  Paris ;  but  when  she  an- 
nounced her  intentions  at  the  port,  her  pass- 
port was  seized,  and  had  she  not  promptly 
reconsidered,  the  circumstances  might  have 
been  serious. 

Everyone  has  heard  the  story  of  the  English 
family  with  a  German  nurse  of  many  years 
standing.  One  day  the  police  called  and  said 
they  wished  to  search  the  nurse  and  her  effects. 
The  family  felt  insulted  and  demanded  that 
such  an  outrage  be  not  perpetrated.  The  police 
persisted,  and  found  in  the  nurse's  trunk,  plans 
of  all  the  neighboring  forts,  and  other  infor- 


20  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

mation  of  military  value.  I  have  heard  this 
story  again  and  again.  An  Englishman  told 
me  that  it  happened  in  his  brother's  family. 

A  rather  amusing  incident  was  related  to 
me  in  England.  A  wealthy  young  American 
civilian  of  an  old  New  York  family,  but  with 
a  name  that  sounded  German,  arrived  from 
the  United  States,  and  visited  some  British 
artillery  officers  in  England.  As  he  was  about 
to  go  to  Paris,  they  asked  him  if  he  would  con- 
vey certain  military  papers  to  an  American 
general  stationed  there.  He,  of  course,  con- 
sented, and  started  for  France  with  the  papers. 
Because  of  his  name  and  the  fact  that  he  was 
a  civilian,  he  was  at  once  an  object  of  sus- 
picion wherever  he  went.  When  trying  to 
take  a  channel  boat,  he  and  his  effects  were 
searched  and  the  military  papers  found.  It 
required  a  lot  of  explaining  and  verifying  to 
prevent  his  incarceration  as  a  spy,  and  the 
result  was  the  reprimanding  of  the  British 
officers,  for  entrusting  military  papers  to  a 
civilian. 

There  is  no  possibility  of  remaining  long  in 
France  without  the  proper  credentials.  All 
aliens  must  be  registered;  and  if  they  are 
civilians,  must  obtain  permission  from  the 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  21 

Chief  of  Police,  to  live  in  any  given  place,  and 
must  report  themselves  to  the  authorities  at 
least  once  a  month.  And  one  cannot  move 
from  one  town  to  another  without  permission. 
This  is  also  true  in  England.  An  American 
lady  living  outside  of  London,  told  me  that 
when  she  wished  to  go  to  London  to  shop  she 
had  first  to  register  in  her  own  village,  then 
register  in  London,  and  then  once  more  in  her 
own  village  after  she  had  returned. 

The  United  States  has  a  very  good  passport 
system,  but  its  system  of  keeping  track  of 
aliens  and  especially  of  alien  enemies  needs 
development.  A  French  officer  told  me  at  the 
front,  that  formerly  hardly  a  movement  was 
made  by  the  French  troops  but  that  the 
Germans  knew  of  it  in  advance.  In  France, 
a  spy  caught  at  the  front  does  not  have  to 
wait  long  to  learn  his  fate.  Long  before  this 
war  began  Germany  had  her  spies  in  every 
rival  country,  who  worked  to  undermine  the 
allegiance  of  the  people  to  their  own  govern- 
ment, and  to  spread  German  propaganda.  It 
is  now  believed  by  those  who  know,  that  the 
distrust  for  the  United  States  planted  in 
Mexico  and  Japan  was  done  by  German  spies 
and  propagandists.  This  country  will  go  a 


22  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

long  way  towards  handling  the  spy  question, 
when  it  gives  them  the  fair  but  short  trial  and 
quick  punishment  meted  out  by  France. 


CHAPTER  IV 

EN  ROUTE  FOR  PARIS 

\ 

THE  SUN  was  setting  as  our  steamer  sailed 
majestically  into  the  great  harbor  that  marks 
the  mouth  of  the  beautiful  river.  We  had  left 
our  low-lying,  battle-gray  convoys  at  the 
mouth  of  the  harbor  and  the  hum  of  aero- 
planes began  to  fade  in  the  distance.  No  mat- 
ter how  greatly  one  loves  the  sea,  the  first 
glimpse  of  land,  after  a  long  voyage,  has  about 
it  a  touch  of  fairyland.  How  much  more  so  in 
these  tragic  days,  when  the  inevitable  fear  and 
tension  of  the  submarine  menace  is  at  last  over 
and  the  anxious  traveller  realizes  that  he  has 
crossed  the  danger  zone  and  has  reached  a 
friendly  shore. 

The  water  at  the  mouth  of  the  wide  river 
is  an  unearthly  light  green,  caused  by  the 
translucent  muddy  water  of  the  river  mixed 
with  the  deep  green  of  the  sea.  On  this  clear 
and  curiously  transparent  water  there  floated 
hundreds  of  little  fishing  smacks,  each  with 
its  colored  sail  set  out  to  dry  in  the  evening 


24  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

breezes.  Red  and  yellow,  and  blue  and 
purple  and  white,  they  were  dotted  over  the 
clear  green  water,  lit  up  by  the  rays  of  the  set- 
ting sun.  As  our  boat  steamed  up  the  river, 
we  felt  again  that  ever-blooming  and  dauntless 
charm  of  France,  which  no  wars  can  destroy 
and  no  enemy  desecrate.  The  willows  dipped 
their  green  leaves  along  the  reed-bordered 
shore.  French  houses  with  their  long  win- 
dows stood  in  their  ancient  fields.  Peasant 
women  could  be  seen  in  the  distance  tilling  the 
soil,  and  little  boats  paddled  up  and  down 
among  the  garden-like  islands. 

The  streets  of  the  ancient  seaport  town  are 
filled  with  soldiers  and,  like  every  other  town 
in  France,  with  women  in  the  quiet  black  of 
many  bereavements.  There  were  some  fine 
looking  American  soldiers  who  saluted  as  we 
passed.  They  were  engineers,  and  I  was  not 
surprised  to  learn  that  many  of  them  were 
college  men.  Some  of  the  best  troops  we  have 
sent  abroad  have  been  our  engineers. 

Aside  from  the  usual  aspect  of  troops  about 
the  streets,  the  city  shows  little  signs  of  war. 
After  an  excellent  dinner  at  the  hotel,  the  three 
of  us  set  out  to  see  the  city.  Because  many 
motor  vehicles  had  been  taken  by  the  army 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  25 

authorities,  the  supply  of  horse-cabs  and  motor- 
cabs  are  far  less  than  the  demand.  The  best 
way  to  get  a  cab  in  France,  is  to  rush  up  hastily, 
grab  the  horse,  thereby  stopping  the  vehicle, 
and  jump  at  once  into  the  cab,  shouting  out  the 
name  of  your  destination.  If  a  taxi-cab  man 
tries  to  argue,  a  wise  traveller  steps  up  and 
turns  down  the  flag,  thereby  turning  the  meter 
and  registering  a  fare,  and  at  once  jumps  in- 
side. These  methods  always  succeed  unless  a 
second  traveller  rushes  up  and  whispers  a  glit- 
tering promise  into  the  driver's  ear.  In  that 
case,  the  first  occupant  is  pulled  bodily  out  of 
the  cab.  Captain  Ward,  however,  is  an  expert 
liaison  officer,  and  we  did  not  have  to  resort 
to  such  strenuous  tactics.  As  we  took  our 
seats  we  noticed  an  American  woman  chauf- 
feur standing  beside  her  car.  She  was  dressed 
like  an  American  private  soldier  with  her  hair 
cut  short,  and  my  eyes  had  been  resting  upon 
her  for  several  moments  before  I  realized  that 
she  was  a  woman.  The  French  have  tried  to 
use  women  as  chauffeurs  for  taxi-cabs,  but  for 
some  reason  they  have  not  been  successful. 

We  took  the  first  train  for  Paris,  and  with 
one  American  civilian,  we  had  made  ourselves 
comfortable,  when  the  door  flew  open  and 


26  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

three  French  ladies  in  mourning,  a  mother  and 
her  two  daughters,  approached.  Captain 
Ward,  true  to  his  sense  of  duty,  shouted  that 
our  carriage  was  full,  but  the  mother  came  up 
to  the  door  and  with  a  charming  manner  and 
in  a  beautifully  modulated  voice,  explained 
that  her  husband  had  lost  his  life  in  the  army 
and  that  one  of  her  daughters  was  going  to 
Paris  to  meet  her  husband  who  was  on  leave 
for  a  few  days.  The  mother  was  in  despair  at 
the  thought  of  allowing  her  daughter  to  travel 
alone,  as  French  girls  and  young  women  are 
very  carefully  chaperoned.  She  begged  us  to 
see  that  her  daughter  arrived  safely  in  Paris. 
Of  course  this  story  melted  our  hearts,  and  we 
gave  the  girl  a  seat  in  our  compartment.  After 
the  train  had  started,  she  explained  to  us  why 
her  mother  had  been  so  insistent.  It  seems  that 
from  a  wide  knowledge  of  the  world,  her 
mother  had  decided  that  Russian  officers  were 
impossible,  that  English  officers  sometimes 
were  nice  and  sometimes  were  not,  that  French 
officers  were  none  too  safe,  but  that  she  was  will- 
ing to  trust  her  daughter  anywhere  alone  with 
any  American.  We  were  not  quite  sure  whether 
we  ought  to  be  flattered  or  not,  but  we  did  our 
best  to  make  the  trip  a  comfortable  one. 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  27 

One  of  us  had  a  naughty  French  comic 
paper,  and  I  was  holding  it  in  my  hands  when 
the  lady  got  in.  In  somewhat  of  a  quandary 
as  to  the  proper  thing  to  do  under  the  circum- 
stances, I  offered  it  to  her  before  reading  it 
myself.  She  thanked  me  and  said  that  she  had 
already  read  it,  and  imagine  my  horror  when 
I  opened  the  paper  and  found  it  full  of  pic- 
tures such  as  the  American  public  would  never 
allow  in  print.  "Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you 
read  such  a  paper,"  I  asked  her  in  surprise. 
"Oh,  not  in  public,"  she  answered,  "my  hus- 
band or  my  brother  send  them  home  to  me." 

We  rolled  on  through  the  beautiful  chateau 
region  in  France  that  lies  between  our  port 
and  Paris,  the  great  estates  of  the  French 
nobility  and  the  charming  villages  of  the 
French  peasants.  It  seemed  as  peaceful  and 
as  undisturbed  as  though  wars  had  gone  out  of 
existence,  with  the  departure  of  the  British 
yeomen,  armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  who 
had  once  attacked  the  chateaux  on  all  the  hills. 
But  in  the  fields  there  were  many  stalwart 
men  gathering  in  the  crops  with  a  curiously 
unenthusiastic  air.  They  were  German  prison- 
ers, still  in  their  German  uniforms  and  under 
French  guard. 


CHAPTER  V 

WARTIME  IN  THE  FRENCH  CAPITAL 

To  ONE  who  has  not  seen  Paris  since  the  gay 
days  before  the  war,  the  face  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful of  cities  is  sadly  changed.  And  yet  not 
so  changed  after  all.  The  streets  are  filled  with 
people  and  while  the  men  are  in  uniform  and 
all  the  women  in  black,  there  is  still  the  air  of 
indomitable  gaiety  which  characterizes  the 
Latin  races.  I  sometimes  think  that  the  differ- 
ence between  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Latin 
is  that  the  English-speaking  races  are  so  opti- 
mistic about  life  itself  that  they  do  not  feel  the 
need  for  gaiety,  and  they  look  upon  the  joyous- 
ness  of  other  countries  as  a  kind  of  swank, 
whereas  the  Latin,  being  gifted  with  imagina- 
tion, realizes  fully  the  fundamental  sadness  of 
the  world  and  insists  upon  gaiety  as  the  only 
means  for  making  life  livable  from  day  to  day. 
When  the  war  first  broke  out,  Paris  was 
plunged  in  grief,  and  underneath  the  surface 
there  still  runs  a  deep  river  of  sorrow,  but  the 
brave  people  have  rallied  their  spirits  and  the 


30  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

life  along  the  streets  moves  on  as  heretofore. 

The  crowds  along  the  Boulevard  are  one  of 
the  most  amazing  sights  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  The  black  in  which  the  women  are 
clothed  is  not  so  somber  as  in  1915.  There  was 
a  time  when  every  woman  who  had  lost  a  rela- 
tive in  the  war,  even  to  second  and  third 
cousins,  was  swathed  in  crepe.  The  effect  was 
so  lugubrious  that  the  French  Government  has 
passed  a  law  that  heavy  mourning  can  be  worn 
for  only  a  few  days  after  the  funeral.  Never- 
theless, most  of  the  civilian  population  is  in 
dark  clothing.  Mingled  with  the  crowd  are 
many  wounded  young  men  without  arms  or 
legs,  limping  men,  blind  men,  men  mangled 
and  maimed  in  every  possible  way;  all  in  uni- 
form and  all  a  sacrifice  to  German  aggression. 
Many  of  them  wore  the  Croix  de  Guerre,  and 
sometimes  also  the  ribbon  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor,  the  highest  award  for  bravery  granted 
the  French  soldiers.  Unlike  the  Americans, 
the  French  wear  their  medals  with  their  field 
service  uniforms.  At  first  sight  this  is  con- 
fusing to  an  American.  As  we  walked  down 
the  street  on  our  first  day  in  Paris,  we  met  a 
large  man  with  a  row  of  medals  running 
across  his  breast.  I  took  him  for  a  Colonel,  at 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  31 

least,  and  saluted.  He  looked  surprised,  and 
as  we  waited  on  the  corner  for  the  traffic  to 
pass,  I  spoke  to  him,  explaining  that  I  was  a 
stranger.  He  smiled  again  and,  saluting 
politely,  informed  me  that  he  was  a  Second 
Lieutenant.  The  French  custom  of  wearing 
chevrons  is  confusing.  A  chevron  on  the  right 
arm  indicates  wounds,  and  on  the  left  arm,  one 
chevron  for  each  six  months  of  service  after 
the  first  year.  To  an  uninformed  American, 
a  French  officer  whose  chevron  showed  that  he 
had  received  two  wounds  and  had  served  a 
year  and  a  half  in  the  army  would  appear  to 
be  a  Corporal.  Non-commissioned  officers 
are  indicated  by  stripes  placed  at  an  angle  on 
the  cuff  of  the  coat  sleeve. 

Soldiers  of  every  allied  nation  were  stroll- 
ing about  the  streets  of  Paris.  The  English 
are  splendid,  manly  looking  men.  The  Scotch, 
in  their  kilts,  are  the  special  delight  of  the 
French  crowds.  The  Irish  and  the  Welsh  were 
distinguished  from  the  English  by  their  regi- 
mental designations.  The  crowds  are  extraor- 
dinarily sober  and  law-abiding  in  spite  of  their 
cosmopolitan  character  and  the  fact  that  most 
of  them  were  soldiers  on  leave.  There  was  a 
time  when  an  occasional  British  soldier 


32  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

or  an  American  Ambulance  man  was  found 
drunk,  but  that  was  probably  because  it  is 
always  hard  to  adjust  one's  self  to  the  customs 
of  a  foreign  country.  There  is  a  freedom  and 
an  air  of  joy  in  Paris  which  a  young  American 
sometimes  misunderstands.  I  was  talking  to  a 
French  officer  one  day  at  a  little  table  in  front 
of  one  of  the  big  restaurants  and  two  Ameri- 
can boys  entered.  They  were  behaving  in  a 
manner  not  too  discreet,  and  my  French  friend 
looked  at  them  with  a  mingling  of  amazement 
and  pity.  "Alas!"  he  said,  "It  is  only  too  true 
that  people  like  the  Russians  and  the  Ameri- 
cans are  confused  by  their  first  contact  with 
civilization."  The  French  have  indeed  a  right 
to  be  proud.  No  one  has  questioned  their  emi- 
nence in  making  life  comfortable  and  happy  in 
little  ways,  and  they  have  proved  themselves 
heroic,  even  beyond  their  own  dreams.  If  that 
is  civilization,  let  us  have  more  of  it. 

Belgian  soldiers  were  everywhere;  in  fact, 
next  to  the  French,  it  seemed  as  if  there  were 
more  than  of  the  soldiers  of  any  other  nation. 
There  are  many  Russians  about  in  their  curi- 
ous green  uniforms,  remnants  of  the  Russian 
Army  which  is  now  fighting  in  France.  They 
were  smaller  men  than  I  had  expected.  I 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  33 

think  one  forms  one's  opinion  of  Russian 
stature  by  pictures  of  the  Grand  Dukes.  There 
were  Portuguese,  there  were  Canadians,  Aus- 
tralians and  New  Zealanders.  With  their  en- 
thusiasm, their  excellent  carriage  and  their 
kindly  faces,  they  give  the  impression  that 
England  has  a  right  to  be  proud  of  her  Col- 
onies. There  were  Algerians,  wearing  a  fez, 
the  badge  of  a  believer  in  Islam.  There  were 
Arabs  with  white  mantles,  there  were  Sene- 
galese, fierce,  powerful  negroes  from  North- 
ern Africa,  black  as  our  own  darkies,  with  a 
curious  metallic  look  to  their  skins,  and  there 
were  Annamites,  whom  I  first  took  to  be  Japs, 
Perhaps  our  men  were  at  first  somewhat  lack- 
ing in  military  courtesy,  but  this  is  not  surpris- 
ing. When  an  army  is  gathered  together  in  a 
hurry,  the  men  are  not  expected  to  have  the 
military  bearing  of  veterans.  When  we  en- 
tered the  war  regiments  were  expanded  by  an 
influx  of  new  recruits,  and  often  the  new  men 
outnumbered  the  older  men.  Officers  were 
sent  abroad  with  only  a  few  months'  military 
training,  and  many  officers  and  men  with  no 
military  training  at  all,  because  they  were 
specialists  and  were  needed  for  some  duty 
back  of  the  lines.  However,  that  is  all  being 


34  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

changed;  even  semi-civilians  like  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
men,  are  being  instructed  in  the  school  of  the 
soldier. 

If  an  American  going  to  any  French  city 
wears  an  old  uniform  because  of  the  war,  he 
will  find  himself  sadly  out  of  place.  French 
and '  English  officers  are  immaculate.  All 
American  officers,  unless  provided  with  one, 
buy  a  Sam  Brown  belt  as  soon  as  they  arrive  in 
Paris.  This  belt  is  copied  from  the  British 
and  serves  no  special  purpose.  It  is  meant 
for  nothing  except  looks  and  it  distinguishes 
officers  from  enlisted  men.  The  French 
limit  its  use  to  officers  of  regiments  who  have 
seen  active  service  at  the  front.  General  Per- 
shing  at  first  decreed  that  American  officers 
must  wear  campaign  hats  to  distinguish  them 
from  officers  of  other  armies.  This  hat 
caused  the  French  much  amusement,  and  sev- 
eral people  asked  me  if  it  were  true,  that  the 
Americans  could  afford  only  one  hat.  British 
officers  carry  canes,  but  Americans  do  not. 
Theoretically,  a  cane  is  for  use  on  horses,  but 
some  of  the  French  canes  have  ferrules,  some 
have  balls  of  lead  for  a  handle,  as  a  black-jack 
has,  and  others  look  like  nothing  so  much  as  a 
club.  The  American  uniform  is  becoming 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  35 

highly  popular  in  the  streets  of  Paris.  When- 
ever we  stopped  at  a  shop  window  we  at- 
tracted a  crowd  of  admiring  solders  and  civil- 
ians. They  have  waited  so  long  for  us  to  come, 
they  have  suffered  so  much  themselves  in  de- 
fence of  freedom,  and  they  have  always  looked 
upon  us  with  so  much  friendliness,  that  now 
that  we  have  come,  heart  and  soul,  and  good 
right  fist,  they  are  delighted.  I  am  sure  that 
the  courage  of  our  men  in  the  more  recent 
troubles  has  not  diminished  their  ardor. 

The  food  in  Paris  is  bountiful,  although 
plenty  of  travellers  returning  to  the  United 
States,  have  told  some  tall  stories  about  the 
lack  of  provisions  in  Paris,  but  I  think  the 
stories  come,  probably,  from  a  desire  to  be 
dramatic,  and  not  from  a  reverence  for  the 
truth.  The  French  are  husbanding  their  re- 
sources, but  there  is  plenty  of  food  for  all. 
There  is  no  white  bread,  but  the  black  bread 
used  as  a  substitute  was  excellent,  and  many 
people  liked  it  better  than  the  white.  Wines 
are  abundant,  though  increasing  in  price. 
White  sugar  was  plentiful  in  hotels,  although 
the  rules  of  buying  limit  its  use  in  private 
houses.  Brown  sugar  is  used  as  a  substitute. 
Except  during  the  winter,  there  are  meatless 


36  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

days,  when  omelets  and  other  substitutes  are 
eaten.  There  are  no  meatless  days,  nor  sugar- 
less days,  nor  wheatless  days  in  the  army.  The 
men  in  service  are  well  fed,  whether  they  be 
French,  British  or  American.  Perhaps  it  will 
be  a  pleasure  to  many  careful  and  patriotic 
housewives  to  know,  that  so  far,  their  efforts 
have  been  amply  rewarded. 

There  was  an  attempt  to  save  coal  in  Paris. 
As  a  result,  buildings  are  heated  very  poorly, 
if  heated  at  all,  and  the  hotels  are  allowed  to 
have  hot  water  only  on  Saturdays  and  Sundays. 
As  there  are  none  too  many  bath-tubs  in  Paris 
at  best,  guests  who  are  amply  able  to  pay  any 
reasonable  sum  for  accommodations  could  be 
seen  standing  in  line  in  the  corridors  for  a 
chance  for  a  bath.  The  elevators  take  pas- 
sengers up,  but  not  down. 

The  conscription  of  all  able-bodied  men 
from  nineteen  to  forty-eight  years  of  age  has 
caused  a  large  influx  of  Spanish,  Swiss  and 
other  neutrals  to  take  the  positions  left  vacant 
by  the  French.  There  has  been  some  com- 
plaint of  this  by  French  labor,  but  it  seemed 
to  be  the  best  solution.  Every  possible  position 
is  filled  by  women.  A  woman  carries  your 
trunk  from  station  to  cab,  another  acts  as  clerk 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  37 

at  a  hotel  when  you  arrive,  they  are  motormen 
on  the  street  cars,  they  do  all  the  work  of  the 
stores,  they  manufacture  most  of  the  muni- 
tions, they  operate  the  subway,  as  ticket  sellers, 
ticket  takers  and  guards.  In  the  country  they 
go  out  into  the  fields  and  bring  in  the  crops. 
When  the  war  is  over  and  its  story  is  told,  his- 
tory will  give  one  of  her  chief  chapters  to  the 
heroic  women  of  France. 

The  blue  dusk  of  Paris  was  settling  down 
over  the  city,  softening  the  outlines  of  her 
beautiful  old  buildings  and  adding  the  last 
note  of  romance  to  the  cosmopolitan  crowds, 
as  we  set  out  from  our  hotel  for  our  first  din- 
ner in  this  most  picturesque  of  all  cities.  We 
wandered  across  the  Place  de  la  Concord,  as 
the  night  came  on.  There  was  a  full  moon 
shining  on  the  river  and  there  were  almost  no 
lights  in  the  city.  No  one  who  has  not  seen 
Paris  under  the  reign  of  terror,  caused  by  the 
Boche  air-raids  can  have  any  conception  of  the 
extraordinary  change  wrought  on  her  beauti- 
ful and  ancient  monuments.  There  are  many 
buildings  in  Paris,  built  in  the  middle  ages, 
which  were  lighted  only  by  a  few  flaring 
torches.  No  one  who  has  seen  the  Con- 
ciergerie  or  the  old  Cathedral,  only  lit  up  by 


38  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

modern  incandescent  lamps,  can  have  the  least 
conception  of  their  true  proportions,  and  their 
wonderful  charm  in  the  pitch  dark  of  modern 
Paris.  These  old  buildings  stand  out  against 
the  moon-lit  sky  exactly  as  they  stood  when 
knights  in  armor  and  all  the  pageantry  of  the 
Medieval  Church  passed  through  their  por- 
tals. As  we  walked  along  the  shore  of  the 
river,  it  seemed  impossible  to  believe  that  this 
was  Paris  of  the  twentieth  century,  and  that 
we  were  American  officers  on  our  way  to 
dinner. 

We  wandered  into  an  unostentatious  restau- 
rant on  the  left  side  of  the  river.  It  was  one 
of  those  charming  spots,  simple,  quiet  and  un- 
obtrusive, where  there  are  no  prices  on  the 
bill-of-fare,  and  your  bill  can  be  almost  any- 
thing. As  the  Captain  remarked,  "The  sky  is 
the  limit."  We  had  a  delicious  meal,  but  it 
was  rather  disturbed  by  the  fact  that  the 
waiters  were  so  excited  over  the  advent  of 
American  officers,  that  they  stood  around  us  in 
circles,  watching  us  eat,  like  animals  in  the 
zoo.  It  was  before  American  officers  were  a 
common  sight  in  Paris,  and  we  were  hailed 
everywhere  as  the  vanguard  of  the  great  army 
that  was  to  deliver  Paris.  The  waiter  who 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  39 

served  our  steak  was  young  and  enthusiastic 
and  he  picked  up  a  morsel  with  such  a  flourish 
that  it  flew  out  of  his  grasp  and  struck  me 
squarely  in  the  chest.  I  had  had  tender  steaks 
before,  but  never  one  that  had  showed  a  desire 
to  kiss  me.  Some  Englishmen  at  a  near-by 
table  were  highly  amused,  but  the  proprietor 
almost  died  of  mortification  and  followed  us 
all  the  way  out  on  the  quay,  protesting  volubly. 
Back  we  went  to  our  hotel  through  the 
moon-lit  city.  I  have  seen  Paris  under  many 
guises,  under  the  chestnut  trees  in  one  of  the 
gayest  of  its  many  gay  springtimes,  during  the 
tourist  season,  when  Americans  were  gathered 
here  on  a  very  different  mission,  and  during 
her  short  and  gloomy  winter  days,  when  the 
great  world  of  continental  Europe  was  making 
merry  along  the  Boulevards,  but  I  have  never 
seen  the  city  with  such  charm  and  such  alto- 
gether irresistible  beauty  as  broods  over  her 
today. 


CHAPTER  VI 

GENERAL  PERSHING  SEES  US  THROUGH 

No  FIGURE  in  the  world  today  is  more  fasci- 
nating or  more  impressive  than  that  of  General 
Pershing.  No  man  commands  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  civilized  world  more  completely.  The 
General  who  will  lead  our  troops  to  victory 
stands  first  in  the  hearts  of  all  America ;  and 
next  to  her  own  beloved  commander,  first  in 
the  hearts  of  France.  Our  Commission  car- 
ried letters  to  General  Pershing,  which  it  was 
necessary  to  present  in  person.  We  inquired 
of  the  various  Americans  whom  we  met  as  to 
the  whereabouts  of  the  General's  Headquar- 
ters. We  could  get  no  information  except 
that  he  was  not  in  Paris.  When  we  finally 
were  informed  by  official  sources  of  the  where- 
abouts of  Headquarters,  we  were  told  that  it 
was  a  profound  secret  and  warned  about 
divulging  our  knowledge  to  anyone,  but  to  our 
great  amusement,  we  soon  found  that  almost 
everyone  on  the  street  seemed  to  know  where 
the  General  was.  On  remarking,  casually,  to 


42  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

a  French  officer,  that  we  were  going  to  Head- 
quarters within  a  few  days,  he  replied,  "Oh, 
yes,  you  are  going  to  X,  but  I  understand  that 
the  General  has  gone  to  Y  for  the  day."  Our 
pride  in  being  intrusted  with  secret  informa- 
tion was  greatly  diminished. 

The  next  day  we  all  three  set  out  for  the 
General's  Headquarters.  The  train  was  filled 
with  soldiers  returning  from  leave,  and  going 
to  the  general  portion  of  the  French  front 
where  the  Americans  have  since  "gone  in." 
General  Headquarters  is  in  a  beautiful  French 
town  in  a  lovely  undulating  country,  much 
better  for  the  health  and  happiness  of  our  men 
than  Paris.  I  learned  it  has  been  since  ar- 
ranged that  our  armies  are  not  to  be  given 
leave  to  go  to  Paris,  a  very  wise  precaution 
considering  the  dangers  and  temptations  of  a 
great  foreign  city.  After  the  proper  arrange- 
ments had  been  made  by  Captain  Ward,  and 
we  had  been  duly  presented  to  Pershing's 
Chief  of  Staff,  we  were  ushered  into  the  pres- 
ence of  the  man  who  is  making  history  for 
America  and  for  the  world.  The  General  was 
sitting  before  a  wide  table  in  a  room  from 
which  every  unnecessary  stick  of  furniture 
had  been  removed,  and  which  had  much  of 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  43 

the  appearance  of  a  modern  city  office.  The 
General  is  a  tall  man  over  six  feet  in  height, 
with  a  square  chin  and  a  large  jaw.  His  eyes 
are  clear  and  penetrating  and  everything 
about  him  suggests  force,  intelligence  and 
splendid  courage.  He  rose  and  greeted  us 
with  a  beaming  smile  as  we  entered  and  in- 
stead of  returning  our  salute  extended  his 
hand.  He  had  evidently  confused  us  with  a 
well  known  Artillery  Corps  of  Boston,  for 
his  first  remark  was,  "Well,  gentlemen,  you 
don't  look  very  ancient,  but  you  may  be  hon- 
orable— I  hope  you  are."  He  seated  us  and 
he  asked  many  questions  in  rapid  succession, 
and  with  extraordinary  penetration  and  clar- 
ity. He  gave  attention  to  the  importance  and 
standing  of  our  commission.  The  instant  he 
started  with  the  necessary  instructions,  Cap- 
tain Ward  pulled  a  note-book  from  his  pocket 
and  asked  the  General  to  lend  him  a  pencil, 
and  sinking  on  his  shoulder  blades  carefully 
compiled  the  General's  directions. 

If  I  am  any  judge  of  character,  General 
Pershing  will  do  all  and  more  than  is  expected 
of  him.  His  hold  over  the  army  is  wonderful 
and  he  is  a  strict  disciplinarian.  Often  he  has 
personally  corrected  officers  and  men  for 


44  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

violating  military  rules,  but  he  is  always  just, 
and  the  men  have  faith  in  him.  He  looks  like 
a  soldier,  acts  like  a  soldier,  and  will  undoubt- 
edly turn  the  splendid  material  that  we  are 
sending  to  him  into  one  of  the  best  armies  in 
the  world.  The  men  on  sentry  duty  who 
saluted  us  as  we  left  General  Headquarters 
were  the  same  Marines  who  have  since  dis- 
tinguished themselves  so  gloriously  in  recent 
battles.  There  were  many  young  conscripts 
scattered  among  our  men.  They  were  lungeing 
fiercely  at  imaginary  German  enemies  and 
parrying  hostile  thrusts.  Others  were  build- 
ing practice  target  posts  in  the  trees  and  their 
work  was  extremely  good. 

On  the  way  back  to  Paris  we  had  another 
amusing  experience  of  travelling  in  France. 
The  train  was  filled  with  men  on  leave,  offi- 
cers in  their  best  uniforms,  many  of  them 
with  bandages,  and  exhausted  men  in  the  vesti- 
bules lying  against  their  heavy  packs.  In 
France,  officers  go  first  class,  ordinary  French 
civilians  usually  go  second  class,  laborers  and 
private  soldiers  go  third  class,  but  all  Ameri- 
cans, whatever  their  rank,  treat  themselves  to 
a  first  class  seat. 

Our  compartment  was  filled.    There  were 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  45 

six  seats,  three  of  which  were  occupied  by  our 
party,  the  fourth  by  an  American  Major,  the 
fifth  by  a  Frenchman  assigned  as  an  inter- 
preter by  the  American  Army,  and  the  sixth, 
in  a  corner  beside  the  door,  by  a  French  Cap- 
tain. As  the  interpreter  said  that  he  did  not 
intend  to  eat  on  the  train,  we  four  American 
officers  asked  him  to  watch  our  seats  while  we 
dined  in  the  dining  car.  He  consented,  and 
we  left  him.  When  we  returned,  after  dining, 
we  found  the  interpreter  alone  in  the  com- 
partment except  for  a  French  lady,  sitting  in 
the  French  Captain's  seat.  The  interpreter 
stated  that  he  had  explained  to  people  who 
tried  to  enter  our  compartment  that  the  seats 
were  engaged,  but  that  the  lady  in  the  corner 
had  insisted  on  entering  and  taking  the  seat  of 
the  French  Captain,  who  had  followed  us  to 
the  dining  car.  All  went  well  until  the  Cap- 
tain returned.  He  told  the  lady  that  of  course 
he  would  not  suggest  her  returning  to  him  his 
seat,  which  she  should  do;  that  he  would  be 
obliged  to  stand  all  the  way  back  to  Paris, 
when  he  really  had  a  seat;  that  she  really 
ought  to  return  what  she  had  so  rudely  taken, 
but  that  he  did  not  intend  to  suggest  it.  The 
lady,  in  turn,  obviously  without  any  intention 


46  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

s 

of  really  doing  so,  offered  to  return  him  his 
seat,  but  carefully  refrained  from  giving  the 
Captain  an  opportunity  of  taking  advantage  of 
her  offer.  The  Captain  said  he  did  not  really 
care  for  the  seat,  but  no  real  lady  would  ever 
take  a  seat  under  such  cimcumstances,  and  the 
conversation  continued  at  length,  the  Captain 
saying  he  didn't  wish  to  have  the  seat,  when 
he  really  did,  while  the  lady  offered  it  to  him 
but  without  the  least  intention  of  letting  him 
have  it.  The  Captain  left  after  an  interminable 
discussion,  only  to  return  and  continue  the 
same  thing  for  about  twenty  minutes  longer. 
At  the  end  of  this  period  he  left  and  once  more 
we  all  breathed  in  peace.  Finally  he  returned 
the  third  time  and  demanded  that  the  inter- 
preter give  up  his  seat,  which  the  latter 
refused  to  do.  He  had  arrived  at  the  point 
where  he,  as  a  captain,  was  ordering  the  inter- 
preter, as  a  private,  to  give  up  his  seat,  when  I 
told  him  that  he  could  have  my  seat,  where- 
upon I  crowded  in  with  the  other  American 
officers  and  left  my  seat  vacant.  His  manner 
changed  at  once.  He  said  that  I  could  not  be 
serious,  and  he  departed  not  to  return. 

When  the  train  arrived  in  Paris,  we  were 
greeted  by  one  of  the  most  touching  sights  I 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  47 

have  ever  seen.  As  the  procession  wended  its 
way  along  the  platform  from  the  train,  there 
gathered  about  the  entrance,  in  the  station 
through  which  the  passengers  must  come,  a 
large  crowd  of  anxious-faced  women,  waiting 
for  these  fighters  from  the  front,  waiting,  per- 
haps, for  a  husband,  son  or  brother.  And 
when  they  saw  him,  there  would  be  glad  cries, 
and  a  little  black  figure  would  be  clasped  by  a 
larger  blue  figure,  and  the  two  would  go  forth 
from  the  station,  his  arm  perhaps  about  her 
waist,  and  both  utterly  oblivious  to  the  fact 
that  the  world  was  going  on  about  them  and 
that  France  was  at  war. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  ARTILLERY  SCHOOL 

IN  AN  old  French  chateau  in  a  charming 
agricultural  village,  set  amid  the  rolling  fields 
of  northern  France,  the  anti-aircraft  school 
was  situated.  When  we  arrived,  this  school 
was  just  being  set  up,  and  it  was  there  that  we 
were  sent  from  general  headquarters,  to  make 
our  investigations  into  anti-aircraft  artillery. 
America  probably  knew  less  at  that  time  about 
the  defense  of  its  own  cities  than  any  other 
civilized  country.  Thanks  to  the  officers  in 
charge  of  the  school,  and  thanks  to  Captain 
Wilder's  helpful  work  in  co-operation  with 
them,  the  American  Government  has  now  that 
information. 

When  the  United  States  officers  first  arrived 
they  were  authorized  to  hire  quarters,  and  they 
promptly  hired  the  chateau,  a  beautiful  build- 
ing set  in  extensive  grounds  and  brooding  over 
a  little  French  village  with  narrow  streets,, 
children  playing  in  the  roadway,  and  soldiers; 
sitting  on  the  door-steps.  The  French  officers 


50  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

connected  with  this  school,  not  wishing  to  be 
out-done  by  the  Americans,  promptly  requi- 
sitioned all  the  chateau  not  in  use  by  them. 
The  chateau  had  belonged  to  Louis  XV,  King 
of  France,  and  was  built  around  a  court  and 
surrounded  by  broad  terraces  extending  the 
width  of  the  building.  These  terraces  swept 
down  in  stately  procession  to  a  small  river 
which  flowed  out  at  one  end  of  the  garden  into 
a  little  lake.  Wide  lawns  stretched  away  from 
the  house  in  every  direction,  an  old  rustic 
bridge,  tall,  well-kept  hedges  and  all  the  other 
surroundings  of  an  ancient,  royal  estate,  gave 
the  place  such  charm  and  beauty,  such  dignity 
and  repose,  that  modern  warfare  seemed 
almost  an  impertinence  beside  it.  And  yet,  in 
the  little  village,  many  French  soldiers,  in  the 
horizon  blue  of  France,  sat  basking  in  the  thin 
sunshine,  and  in  all  the  fields,  so  peaceful 
under  the  summer  sky,  the  brave  peasant 
women  of  France  were  gathering  in  the  crops. 
And  all  through  the  fields,  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  reach,  were  the  remains  of  French 
trenches,  dug  by  the  French,  when  the  Ger- 
mans were  on  their  way  to  Paris,  already  cov- 
ered with  young  grass  and  rapidly  becoming  a 
part  of  the  ancient  landscape. 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  51 

Inside  the  chateau,  the  walls  were  hung 
with  mellow  old  tapestries  and  with  portraits 
of  men  in  armor.  The  furniture  was  that  used 
by  the  French  nobility  two  hundred  years  ago. 
Beautifully-painted  tables  of  the  period  of 
Louis  XV,  stood  against  the  walls,  and  beside 
them  were  pine  tables  from  America,  upon 
which  lay  the  military  maps  of  France.  As 
night  settled  down  over  the  countryside,  the 
moon  rose  behind  the  poplar  trees,  and  as  mid- 
night approached,  we  heard  in  the  silent  air, 
the  voice  of  a  nightingale  singing  in  the  rose 
garden,  and  then  a  boyish  laugh  and  the  voice 
of  young  America  raised  in  a  bantering  good- 
night. 

In  this  chateau  had  been  stationed  two 
American  Captains,  West  Point  and  Annap- 
olis, experts  in  artillery.  They  were  busy 
preparing  an  artillery  school  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  young  American  officers  in  anti-air- 
craft fighting.  Captain  Wilder  was  promptly 
urged  to  assist  in  the  establishment  of  this 
school,  and  he  remained  with  them  for  several 
eeks,  compiling  his  report  and  lending  his 
assistance  in  organizing  the  school.  This 
hool  has  since  instructed  scores  of  Amer- 


52  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

icans  in  the  difficult  art  of  anti-aircraft 
artillery. 

No  branch  of  the  military  game  is  more 
interesting  than  anti-aircraft  artillery.  Even 
as  the  role  of  aircraft  grows  more  and  more 
important,  so  must  the  science  of  circumvent- 
ing the  aircraft  be  studied  with  equal  care. 
All  students  of  the  subject  agree  that  the  for- 
eign armies  have  not  yet  begun  to  use  the  tre- 
mendous possibilities  that  fighting  in  the  air 
will  develop.  Britain  has  made  land  tanks, 
which  are  moving  forts,  and  are  impervious  to 
anything  except  direct  hits  by  armor-piercing 
projectiles  from  high-powered  guns.  Why  can 
we  not  have  flying  tanks  which  will  be  much 
harder  to  hit  and  which  will  fly  over  all 
obstructions  and  attack  the  enemy  from  above? 
In  back  of  the  lines,  aircraft  can  be  equally 
useful.  After  watching  long  lines  of  wagons 
loaded  with  supplies,  painfully  plodding 
through  the  mud  or  dust  of  a  Texas  summer 
and  fall,  one  wonders,  for  transportation 
of  wounded,  for  every  purpose  that  involves 
the  moving  of  anything,  why  not  use  the  air? 

Away  from  the  battle  line,  away  in  our 
home  cities  near  the  coast,  what  is  to  prevent 
hostile  aircraft,  as  at  present  constructed,  from 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  53 

dropping  bombs  on  our  homes?  Some  vague, 
but  growing  realization,  of  the  increasing  pos- 
sibilities of  aircraft  attack,  combined  with  a 
desire  to  be  useful,  caused  me  first  to  become 
interested  in  anti-aircraft  artillery. 

It  was  in  the  fall  of  1916,  after  I  had 
returned  from  the  Mexican  border,  that  I  first 
had  an  opportunity  of  studying  the  problem  of 
defending  American  cities  from  aircraft 
attack.  It  was  remarkable  how  little  was 
known  in  this  country  at  that  time  about  the 
subject.  No  manuals  were  available,  and  the 
men  with  whom  I  associated  were  forced  to 
get  practically  all  their  information  from 
British  and  French  officers,  none  of  whom 
were  very  up-to-date  in  their  knowledge. 
No  one  permitted  himself  to  get  discouraged, 
for  all  firmly  believed  that  the  great  war  in 
Europe  made  it  clear  that  all  the  cities  in  the 
United  States,  near  the  seaboard,  were  liable 
to  attack  from  hostile  aircraft,  and  would 
surely  be  attacked  when  Germany  once  made 
up  its  mind  that  it  wished  to  punish  us  as  it  is 
trying  to  punish  England.  We  read  that 
Brigadier-General  Squier,  formerly  in  charge 
of  the  aircraft  of  the  United  States  Army,  had 
testified  before  the  house  Committee  on  Mili- 


54  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

tary  Affiairs,  that  an  enemy  ship  could  lie  off 
three  hundred  miles  from  the  City  of  New 
York,  and  could  easily  send  a  number  of  flying 
machines  to  raid  the  city.  It  was  also  shown, 
by  foreign  experts,  that  a  large  number  of  sub- 
marines had  been  built  by  Germany  for  the 
express  purpose  of  carrying  hydroplanes  to 
attack  distant  cities. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  GREATEST  SPORT  IN  THE  WORLD 

I  WONDER  how  many  people  think  of  anti- 
aircraft fighting  as  something  which  greatly 
resembles  partridge  shooting.  How  many 
believe  that  an  anti-aircraft  gun  is  aimed  at 
the  approaching  aeroplane  much  as  a  shot-gun 
is  aimed  at  a  bird  on  the  wing?  Nothing  could 
be  further  from  the  truth.  The  target  of  an 
anti-aircraft  gun  is  a  point  moving  perhaps  a 
hundred  miles  an  hour  many  thousand  feet  in 
the  air,  and  with  the  ability  to  turn  and  twist 
in  any  direction  with  great  rapidity.  Anti- 
aircraft artillery  is,  therefore,  one  of  the  most 
exact  of  all  military  sciences.  I  remember 
falling  into  error  myself  one  time  when  I 
depicted  to  a  number  of  possible  recruits,  the 
excitement  of  dashing  at  full  speed  through 
the  streets  of  a  bombed  city  with  an  anti-air- 
craft gun  mounted  on  an  automobile  and  firing 
as  we  rode.  Of  course,  such  procedure  is 
utterly  impossible,  and  if  American  cities  are 
to  be  defended  against  hostile  aircraft,  they 


56  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

must  be  outfitted  according  to  the  latest  Euro- 
pean method.  To  get  this  was  the  purpose  of 
our  mission,  and  all  three  of  us  felt  rather  like 
"Babes  in  the  Woods,"  when  we  found,  on  our 
arrival  at  the  general  headquarters,  just  what 
our  problems  were  to  be,  although  we  had 
been  picked  for  the  job  because  of  our  sup- 
posed knowledge  of  anti-aircraft  artillery. 

The  use  of  anti-aircraft  artillery  in  the 
defence  of  cities  is  a  problem  differing  from 
its  use  along  the  firing  line,  although  in  the 
case  of  a  city  like  Paris,  the  anti-aircraft  artil- 
lery along  the  front  is  obviously,  the  first  line 
of  defence.  So  few  enemy  planes  get  by  the 
anti-aircraft  artillery  in  the  trenches,  that  the 
worst  of  the  problem  has  been  solved  before  it 
becomes  necessary  to  defend  the  city  proper. 
Paris  is  an  inland  city,  and  before  a  German 
plane  or  planes  can  attack  it  they  must  cross 
the  firing  lines  at  night  or  above  the  clouds  and 
escape  detection  by  the  anti-aircraft  batteries. 
If  they  are  seen,  the  information  is  promptly 
reported  to  the  rear  and  the  defenders  of  the 
city  are  ready  before  they  arrive  and  planes 
are  sent  up  to  oppose  them.  Back  of  the  actual 
front  there  are  watching  stations  distributed 
through  various  parts  of  France,  whose  busi- 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  57 

ness  is  to  report  planes  that  escape  the  notice 
of  the  guns  at  the  firing  line,  and  in  case  a 
fleet  eludes  both  of  these,  it  will  be  detected 
and  intercepted  by  the  airplanes,  which  are 
constantly  patrolling  the  air  above  Paris. 
Thus,  in  order  for  an  airplane  to  attack  Paris, 
it  must  pass  three  lines  of  defence.  This  is 
known  as  depth  of  defence  and  is  of  prime 
importance  in  defending  an  area  or  a  city. 

A  seaport,  on  the  other  hand,  such  as  Lon- 
don or  our  own  coast  cities,  presents  an  entirely 
different  problem.  The  only  way  to  warn  the 
city  of  an  approaching  enemy  esquadrille  is 
by  means  of  a  fleet  at  sea,  because  by  the  time 
the  airplanes  have  arrived  at  the  coast  or  har- 
bor, there  is  no  time  to  make  preparations  for 
intercepting  them.  The  best  way  to  guard 
against  aircraft  attack  on  such  cities  is  by 
means  of  other  airplanes.  In  order  to  make 
such  a  defence  effective,  it  is  necessary  to 
install  a  system  of  signals  between  patrol  boats 
and  the  shore  and  to  place  watching  stations 
in  the  other  three  directions  to  prevent  planes 
from  crossing  a  neighboring  frontier  and 
approaching  the  city  from  the  landward  side. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  speed  of  an 
airplane  being  nearly  three  times  that  of  a 


58  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

fast  train,  a  frontier  many  miles  away  may  be 
useful  as  a  starting  point  for  enemy  aircraft. 

The  French  cities  suffered  from  air  attack 
during  the  early  part  of  the  war.  In  Septem- 
ber, 1914,  a  German  aeroplane  visited  Paris 
nearly  every  day,  and  dropped  insulting  mes- 
sages on  the  population.  Every  civilian  who 
possessed  fire-arms  rushed  into  the  streets  and 
began  shooting  in  the  direction  of  the  heavens. 
The  result  can  well  be  imagined.  How  much 
damage  was  done  will  never  be  known  in 
detail.  I  once  asked  a  French  captain  what 
proportion  of  casualties  during  an  air-raid 
was  caused  by  falling  shrapnel  from  friendly 
guns.  He  laughed,  and  answered,  "There  are 
no  records  of  any  such  casualties.  Everything 
that  goes  up  is  French,  and  everything  that 
comes  down  is  Boche." 

Little  by  little,  France  has  developed  a  very 
perfect  system  of  defence  against  air-craft. 
When  Zeppelins  first  began  coming  over 
Paris  and  dropping  bombs,  they  came  on  clear 
nights  and  used  the  rivers  as  guides  to  Paris, 
especially  the  river  Oise.  During  the  second 
year  of  the  war,  the  Germans  developed  their 
instruments  so  that  it  was  not  necessary  for 
them  to  use  natural  land  marks  as  guides.  By 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  59 

getting  their  bearings  by  instruments,  they 
were  enabled  to  proceed  to  much  greater 
heights  and  above  the  clouds  on  a  cloudy 
night.  It  was  reported  that  they  used  smoke- 
making  devices  for  concealment.  The  Zep- 
pelins, going  higher,  meant  that  attacking 
aeroplanes  must  be  developed  which  could 
quickly  go  higher.  One  method  of  attack  was 
for  an  aeroplane  to  get  over  the  Zeppelin  and 
drop  an  incendiary  bomb  through  the  gas  bag. 
When  the  French  improved  their  type  of 
aeroplane  so  that  it  successfully  met  the  Zep- 
pelin, the  Germans  began  using  aeroplanes 
for  their  raids.  At  first  they  came  by  day,  at 
an  average  height  of  about  1500  metres.  Now, 
German  planes  average  6000  to  6200  metres  in 
height,  and  there  it  is  difficult  for  the  anti- 
aircraft guns  to  reach  them.  Since  the  end  of 
1916,  the  German  aeroplanes  come  usually  at 
night,  following  some  natural  landmark,  for 
they  have  not  yet  been  able  to  keep  their  bear- 
ings or  sense  of  direction  in  fogs  or  clouds  as 
could  the  Zeppelins,  by  the  use  of  instruments. 
Bomb-dropping  from  such  altitudes  has 
proved  to  be  very  inaccurate.  No  military 
damage  of  consequence  has  been  accom- 
plished, and  the  French  officers  consider  that 


60  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

the  bombing  has  been  intended  merely  to 
intimidate  the  civilian  population.  Paris  has 
had  good  luck,  for  a  very  large  proportion  of 
the  bombs  dropped  by  the  Germans  have 
fallen  in  the  parks  or  squares  which  abound  in 
Paris. 

An  unsatisfactory  device  is  the  attempt  to 
illuminate  fighting  planes  by  means  of  search- 
lights. These  searchlights  may  inconvenience 
the  enemy  aviator,  but  they  are  certain  to 
dazzle  the  pilots  of  the  defending  planes.  The 
aviator  can  guard  himself  against  being  daz- 
zled by  the  use  of  goggles,  but,  if  this  is  done, 
it  decreases  his  ability  to  find  the  enemy  planes, 
and  when  the  searchlight  is  taken  away,  he  is 
in  a  worse  predicament  than  before,  as  he  is 
then  lost  in  the  dark.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  searchlights  be  kept  playing  upon  an 
enemy  plane  in  order  to  dazzle  the  aviator  so 
that,  if  he  does  not  lose  his  sense  of  direction, 
his  efficiency  as  a  bomb-dropper  and  an 
observer  shall  be  diminished.  But  this  has  not 
proved  practical,  as  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
follow  a  moving  machine  with  a  searchlight. 
The  moment  the  light  strikes  the  aviator,  he 
drops,  and  it  is  some  minutes  before  he  can  be 
picked  up  again,  while  in  the  meantime,  the 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  61 

light  has,   perchance,   revealed   the  where- 
abouts of  the  friendly  aviators. 

The  best  defence  for  American  seacoast 
cities  is  in  addition  to  guns  an  alert  and  well- 
trained  esquadrille,  guided  by  watching  sta- 
tions and  always  on  the  lookout  for  a  possible 
attack. 


CHAPTER  IX 

IN  MID-CHANNEL 

IT  WAS  with  little  pleasure  that  I  accepted 
the  suggestion  to  go  to  England.  We  had 
come  to  France  to  see  as  much  of  the  war  as 
we  could,  in  a  brief  visit,  and  I  did  not  want  to 
tear  myself  away  from  the  so-called  battle- 
lines  for  any  purpose  whatsoever.  Little  did  I 
realize  that  in  going  to  London,  I  was  going 
directly  to  the  heart  of  the  very  kind  of  fight- 
ing that  we  had  come  abroad  to  see, — the 
defence  of  cities  against  enemy  aircraft. 

On  the  boat-train  from  Paris,  I  had  one  of 
the  pleasantest  experiences  of  my  life.  My 
compartment  was  filled  with  French  people, 
charming  and  intelligent,  including  two  very 
pretty  girls,  travelling  with  their  mother.  We 
soon  entered  into  conversation  and  I  found 
that  the  interest  of  the  French  people  in  every 
thing  relating  to  America  is  intense  and  sym- 
pathetic. The  French  have,  themselves,  so 
perfect  a  civilization,  such  a  perfect  home  life 
and  such  a  high  development  of  both  art  and 


64  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

science,  that  they  have  been  in  the  past  a 
somewhat  provincial  people.  Why  study 
other  countries,  when  their  own  country  was 
almost  everything  that  humanity  desires  in  a 
high  state  of  perfection.  Now,  however,  like 
the  rest  of  the  world,  France  is  beginning  to 
open  her  eyes  and  reach  out  her  hands  to  her 
sister  democracies.  To  the  average  French 
person,  America  is  almost  incomprehensible; 
almost  everything  about  us  is  beyond  the  ken 
of  an  old  and  settled  country.  Everything, 
indeed,  except  our  love  for  freedom  and  our 
cordial  manners.  We  have,  in  large  part,  the 
gaiety  and  optimism  of  the  South  combined 
with  Anglo-Saxon  political  institutions.  That 
much  the  French  understand,  but  many  other 
things  are  beyond  them.  Our  practical  effi- 
ciency, combined  with  an  almost  sentimental 
idealism,  is  in  exact  variance  with  the  Latin 
point  of  view,  which  is  rather  materialistic  in 
national  affairs  and  a  bit  old-fashioned  in  their 
conduct  of  their  personal  business.  It  is 
almost  impossible  for  a  Frenchman  to  under- 
stand our  habit  of  assimilating  the  crowds  of 
foreigners  who  come  to  make  their  homes  with 
us.  It  is  hard  for  them  to  grasp  our  enormous 
size,  the  off-hand  way  in  which  we  wander 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  65 

about  from  city  to  city,  and  our  lack  of  respect 
for  money.  A  fortune  is  so  hard  to  amass  in 
Europe,  that  a  Frenchman  cannot  understand 
the  comparative  indifference  with  which  we 
make  and  lose  money.  All  these  things  and 
many  others  we  discussed  as  the  train  ran 
through  the  beautiful  rolling  fields  of  Nor- 
mandy. Captain  Ward  had  told  me  not  to 
talk  about  America  to  the  British,  as  the  sub- 
ject enraged  them.  That  was  only  a  few  short 
months  ago.  Nothing  could  be  more  hearten- 
ing to  those  who  love  other  countries  beside 
their  own  than  the  whole-hearted  way  in 
which  both  the  French  and  British  have  wel- 
comed us  with  all  our  faults  and  short-com- 
ings, as  though  we  were  their  dearest  and  their 
oldest  friend. 

I  was  met  at  the  Havre  station  by  a  sergeant 
of  the  American  military  police.  He  took  me 
at  once  to  the  major  in  charge  of  the  lines  of 
communication,  and  treated  me  with  the 
utmost  courtesy  and  respect.  These  Ameri- 
can military  police  are  a  very  useful  branch  of 
the  service.  When  large  numbers  of  Ameri- 
can soldiers,  many  of  whom  do  not  speak 
French,  are  travelling  in  strange  countries,  it 
is  important  that  there  be  men  stationed  at 


66  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

every  large  city  to  see  that  they  are  guided 
promptly  and  courteously  about  their  affairs. 
Sometimes  one  meets  an  inefficient  one.  I 
remember  the  American  military  police  at 
one  port,  when  we  were  on  our  way  home.  I 
stepped  up  to  him  and  asked,  "Are  you  one 
of  the  military  police?"  He  answered,  "Yes." 
I  asked,  "Can  you  speak  French?"  He  said 
"No."  I  then  asked  him  if  he  knew  where  the 
boat  left  for  the  United  States,  and  he  said  that 
he  had  not  the  slightest  idea.  I  was  then  look- 
ing at  him  rather  curiously  to  determine 
whether  he  was  drunk  or  just  stupid.  He 
heaved  a  deep  sigh,  shifted  his  weight  from 
one  foot  to  the  other,  and  remarked,  "There 
'haint  the  Hell  of  lot  to  this  job."  There  cer- 
tainly was  not.  However,  I  am  glad  to  say 
that  most  American  military  police  are  both 
efficient  and  courteous.  The  one  at  Havre  did 
everything  possible  to  expedite  my  errands. 

The  streets  of  Havre  might  well  be  those  of 
a  British  city.  British  soldiers  are  every- 
where. The  streets  were  crowded  with  them 
and  the  tram-cars  were  filled  with  them  going 
to  and  from  their  camps.  There  were  many 
English  women  in  uniform.  They  wore  soft 
campaign  hats,  olive-drab  blouses  and  skirts, 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  67 

brown  stockings  and  low  shoes.  They  were 
the  members  of  the  Woman's  Army  Auxiliary 
Corps,  which  supplies  stenographers,  clerks, 
chauffeurs,  and  other  workers  to  the  British 
Army.  They  were  neat  and  intelligent 
women,  doing  a  vast  and  highly  important 
work  toward  winning  the  war.  As  they 
walked  about  the  streets  of  Havre,  each  one 
was  accompanied  by  a  young  soldier,  and  all 
seemed  to  be  having  a  good  time.  I  asked  a 
British  officer  if  the  presence  of  these  women 
in  France,  was  not  a  great  help  toward  keep- 
ing soldiers  from  getting  home-sick.  He  said, 
laughing,  that  many  of  them  were  more  effi- 
cient at  that  than  at'whatever  they  had  enlisted 
to  do.  He  added  that  as  they  held  the  rank  of 
privates  or  of  non-commissioned  officers,  the 
officers  were  not  allowed  to  associate  with 
them.  I  think  he  was  rather  jealous  of  the 
Tommies. 

Part  of  the  beautiful  city  of  Havre  rises  to 
high  cliffs  overlooking  the  Channel.  On  the 
highest  point  is  a  lighthouse,  and  about  it  were 
many  British  soldiers  lying  in  the  grass,  look- 
ing wistfully  out  across  the  Channel  to  the  dis- 
tant shores  of  home.  Every  few  moments  an 
aeroplane  would  rise  up  from  the  shore  and, 


68  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

joining  others  wheeling  about  over  the  water, 
watched  for  submarines.  Behind  the  cliffs  is 
the  portion  of  Havre  now  occupied  by  the 
Belgian  Government  for  its  capital  and  the 
transaction  of  its  business.  Below  the  cliffs 
stretches  a  wide  and  sandy  bathing  beach, 
dotted  with  bright-colored  umbrellas  and 
little  bathing-houses,  and  thronged  with  Brit- 
ish soldiers  and  French  and  British  civilians. 
The  beach  might  have  been  one  of  our  Long 
Island  beaches  on  a  pleasant  summer  Sunday, 
except  that  the  women  wore  the  charmingly 
suitable  and  scant  bathing  suit  customary  in 
France.  Opposite  the  lower  part  of  the  city 
are  the  long  and  busy  wharfs.  They  were 
crowded  with  German  prisoners,  young,  active 
men,  still  in  their  own  uniforms,  busily 
engaged  in  loading  and  unloading  freight.  I 
was  told  that  they  were  perfectly  contented, 
and  had  been  promised  the  same  pay  that  they 
would  have  received  as  soldiers  in  the  Ger- 
man Army.  They  were  within  sight  of  a  few 
sentries,  but  they  practically  never  tried  to 
escape.  There  were  officers,  sometimes,  who 
tried  to  get  away,  but  it  is  unheard  of  for  an 
enlisted  man  to  do  so.  They  consider  that  the 
fighting  is  ended,  as  far  as  they  are  concerned, 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  69 

and  they  do  not  wish  to  go  back  to  the  trenches 
to  be  killed. 

The  Channel  route  from  Havre  to  South- 
ampton is  mostly  used  by  civilians,  but  there 
is  a  goodly  sprinkling  of  soldiers  and  officers 
going  home  on  leave.  My  chair  was  placed 
next  to  that  of  a  Surgeon  Lieutenant-Colonel, 
who  was  going  home  for  a  rest  after  having 
treated  60,000  soldiers  suffering  from  malaria 
in  his  hospital  at  Malta.  Turks  are  not  the 
only  enemy  that  the  British  must  meet  and 
conquer  in  the  Orient.  The  Channel  was 
somewhat  rough  and  it  was  a  funny,  though 
pathetic,  sight,  to  see  tanned  and  battle- 
scarred  British  officers,  who  had  dutifully 
faced  the  guns  of  the  enemy  for  many  months 
without  a  qualm,  leaning  helplessly  over  the 
rail  of  the  boat  and  descending  at  last  in 
Southampton,  pale  and  dishevelled.  Our  train 
for  London  was  crowded  with  men  home  on 
leave,  their  rifles  and  shrapnel  helmets 
strapped  on  their  backs,  but  on  their  tanned 
faces  a  smile  of  happiness  that  came  from  the 
heart. 


CHAPTER  X 

LONDON  IN  WARTIME 

ON  REGISTERING  at  a  hotel  in  London,  I  was 
given  a  blank  which  must  be  filled  out  by  all 
aliens,  and  on  which  I  was  obliged  to  set  forth 
at  length  what  seemed  the  history  of  my  life. 
I  also  was  told  that  I  must  register  at  the  near- 
est police  station.  I  registered  at  the  Bow 
Street  police  station,  where  I  met  a  very 
pleasant  officer,  who  told  me  that  being  an 
American  officer,  I  was  not  obliged  to  register 
at  all. 

On  the  evening  of  my  arrival,  I  walked  out 
to  the  Strand,  which  is  crowded  with  people 
if  a  German  raid  is  not  taking  place,  and  got 
my  first  view  of  a  London  crowd  in  wartime. 
The  atmosphere  struck  me  as  distinctly 
unpleasant.  Nine  out  of  every  ten  persons 
walking  on  the  Strand  were  women.  It  may 
be  perfectly  legitimate  for  women  to  walk 
through  the  Strand  in  the  evening  attended  or 
unattended,  but  the  appearance  and  actions  of 
many  of  the  women  made  one  glad  that  no 


72  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

American  soldiers  were  with  them.  One 
grabbed  me  by  the  arm  as  I  passed.  I  was 
impressed  that  the  London  authorities  do  very 
little,  if  anything,  to  protect  soldiers  from  one 
of  the  worst  enemies  that  an  army  has  to  fear. 

And  while  thoughtless  soldiers  and  painted 
women  walked  up  and  down  the  street, 
another  little  scene  was  being  enacted  across 
the  way,  at  a  large  station  on  the  Strand.  A 
curious  crowd  was  gathered  about  one  of  the 
station's  wagon  entrances,  near  which  the 
trains  unloaded,  watching  ambulance  after 
ambulance  being  filled  with  wounded  from 
the  recent  push  in  France,  and  quickly  driven 
away.  While  the  crowds  in  the  street  thought- 
lessly enjoyed  themselves  and  carelessly 
glanced  at  the  swiftly-moving,  white  ambu- 
lances, with  the  red  crosses  on  the  outside, 
inside  lay  some  of  the  very  men  that  had  made 
Britain's  last  great  victory  possible.  I  glanced 
in  one  of  the  ambulances  and  saw  two  boys, 
still  in  uniform,  lying  with  their  eyes  closed 
and  bloody  bandages  about  their  heads. 

In  London,  only  the  Strand  appeared 
thoughtless.  In  general,  British  men  and 
women  there,  and  in  every  other  part  of  the 
island,  seemed  to  be  doing  their  best  to  win  the 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  73 

war.  In  London,  I  first  learned  from  men, 
who  had  been  present,  of  the  wonders  per- 
formed by  that  "contemptible  little  army," 
when  first  sent  to  the  continent.  Barely  a 
handful,  as  modern  armies  go,  they  lacked 
everything  which  usually  makes  success  pos- 
sible in  warfare.  Their  largest  gun  was  an 
eighteen  pounder,  and  for  a  long  period  of 
time,  they  had  so  little  ammunition  that  they 
could  only  fire  six  shots  a  day.  The  Germans 
might  relieve  their  front  line  trenches  in  plain 
sight,  but  if  the  six  shots  had  been  expended, 
the  British  could  not  fire  at  them.  They  did 
not  have  control  of  the  air  and,  as  a  result, 
they  could  not  obtain  the  accurate  range  for 
the  few  shots  they  could  fire.  Their  guns 
were  not  big  enough  to  blow  away  the  Ger- 
man barbed  wire  entanglements,  and  as  a 
result,  they  charged  with  insufficient  artillery 
preparation  and  were  caught  on  wire  that 
should  have  been  blown  to  shreds,  or  were  shot 
down  in  rows  by  machine  guns  which  could 
not  be  silenced  because  of  lack  of  artillery. 

Often,  because  of  inferior  ammunition  or 
for  other  causes,  then  not  possible  to  rectify, 
the  weak  British  barrage,  directed  against  the 
Germans,  fell  among  their  own  troops,  and 


74  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

one  well-known  Canadian  regiment  is  said  to 
have  been  nearly  exterminated  from  this 
cause.  As  one  English  sergeant  expressed  it, 
"The  men  will  gladly  go  against  whatever 
they  are  sent,  but  it  does  take  the  heart  out  of 
the  men  for  our  own  guns  to  be  turned  on  us." 

Insufficient  food  and  insufficient  clothing 
and  other  hardships  were  borne,  enough  to 
break  the  spirit  of  ordinary  men,  and  yet  they 
withstood  the  attack  of  the  German  hordes, 
equipped  with  big  guns,  an  abundance  of 
machine  guns,  plenty  of  ammunition,  food  and 
clothing,  and  everything  else  needed  by  an 
army,  and  forced  them  to  take  to  trench  war- 
fare and  give  Britain  and  France  a  real  chance 
to  prepare.  When  the  war  began,  France  had 
barely  one  thousand  rounds  per  gun  for  her 
artillery,  and  was  little  prepared  for  the 
unexpected  onslaught  made  on  her. 

An  English  officer  described  fighting  in 
those  days,  when  complicated  systems  of  first 
trench  dugouts  were  not  employed,  as  follows : 
"You  are  in  a  trench  and  the  Huns  begin  to 
bombard  you.  Your  guns,  because  of  lack  of 
ammunition,  withhold  their  fire.  A  Hun  shell 
bursts  just  short  of  your  trench  with  deafen- 
ing roar,  but  you  are  still  safe.  Shells  are 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  75 

bursting  all  about.  One  goes  past,  just  miss- 
ing landing  in  the  trench.  One  falls  in  a 
traverse  next  you  and  kills  every  man  in  it. 
And  so  it  goes;  you  hope  each  moment  that 
you  will  be  safe  to  the  next." 

Another  British  officer  told  me  how  one 
day  the  commander  of  the  artillery  came  to 
the  men  in  the  font  trenches  and  quietly  said, 
"I  have  all  the  ammunition  I  need.  At  what 
shall  I  fire?"  A  German  battery  that  had 
been  killing  many  British  in  the  front  trench 
was  selected  as  a  target,  and  the  British  artil- 
lery opened  fire.  The  German  battery  imme- 
diately responded  by  firing  on  the  British 
infantry,  which  called  the  British  artillery 
upon  the  telephone  and  begged  it  to  stop  as 
the  target  was  killing  more  of  their  men.  The 
answer  was  that  the  British  artillery  intended 
to  finish  what  it  began.  Shells  came  from 
every  direction  back  of  the  British  trenches 
towards  that  German  battery,  which  was  soon 
put  out  of  action.  The  British  infantry  did 
not  know  the  army  had  so  many  guns,  and 
from  that  time  forth,  British  soldiers  fought 
on  more  equal  terms  with  their  opponents.  It 
is  calculated  that  had  Britain  been  prepared, 


76  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

over  two  hundred  thousand  of  her  dead  sol- 
diers would  be  alive  to-day. 

The  men  of  Britain  have  not  been  the  only 
ones  to  win  glory  in  this  war.  The  women  of 
Britain,  often  of  gentle  birth  and  unused  to 
any  form  of  labor,  have  gone  into  the  muni- 
tion factories  and  made  possible  the  victories 
of  the  front.  Everywhere  they  have  taken 
man's  place  to  leave  him  free  to  fight.  In  the 
ages  to  come,  when  British  boys  read  of  the 
glorious  deeds  of  Britain's  soldiers  and  sailors 
in  this  war,  let  him  also  remember  British 
women,  who  have  given  up  everything, 
including,  frequently,  their  health  and  lives, 
to  help  add  the  glory  to  those  deeds. 

London,  like  Paris,  seemed  to  be  filled  with 
soldiers.  The  best  drilled  soldiers  I  have  ever 
seen,  were  those  of  the  crack  British  regiments. 
I  saw  a  company  of  new  men  drilling  outside 
of  the  barracks  near  Buckingham  Palace,  who 
were  being  trained  to  be  sent  shortly  to  the 
front,  and  the  drill  of  those  young  soldiers 
would  have  done  credit  to  West  Point  Cadets. 

I  saw  many  wounded  about  the  streets  of 
London.  When  first  out  of  the  hospitals,  they 
wear  uniforms  of  blue  overall  material  with 
red  neckties.  When  nearly  well,  they  wear 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  77 

their  regular  uniforms  with  a  blue  band  about 
the  arm.  I  asked  a  British  officer  why  the 
wounded  wore  the  blue  band.  He  answered 
that  it  was  so  that  they  could  not  get  a  drink. 
It  seems  that  Tommy  can  get  all  the  drink  he 
can  pay  for  unless  he  is  wounded,  in  which 
event,  he  must  go  to  the  extra  trouble  of  wear- 
ing something  that  will  conceal  his  blue  uni- 
form or  band.  It  will  take  something  more 
than  a  blue  uniform  or  a  band  to  keep  Tommy 
from  getting  his  drink. 

The  price  of  food  in  London  was  less  than 
in  the  United  States,  and  the  prices  of  most 
other  commodities  were  likewise  cheaper.  All 
military  equipment  could  be  purchased  for 
about  half  the  price  that  similar  articles 
would  cost  in  the  United  States,  and  there  did 
not  seem  to  be  a  noticeable  scarcity  of  any  of 
the  so-called  necessities.  It  would  pay  the 
United  States  to  copy  British  laws  against 
profiteering. 


CHAPTER  XI 

AIR  RAIDS  AND  COURAGE 

IN  FORMER  wars,  every  civilized  nation  has 
refrained  from  injuring  non-combatants 
whenever  possible.  This  practice  was  based 
upon  rules  of  warfare  recognized  by  all 
nations  for  centuries,  and  was  originally 
founded  upon  humane  grounds.  In  this  war, 
Germany  apparently  regards  no  rules  of  inter- 
national law  or  usage  as  binding  upon  her 
where  it  is  to  her  advantage  to  violate  them. 

Warfare,  as  developed  by  German  stand- 
ards, demands  that  the  home  cities  of  the 
enemy  be  bombed  without  any  intention  of 
doing  direct  military  damage.  The  purpose 
is  to  create  such  fearful  havoc  among  non- 
combatants  that  panic  and  a  desire  for  peace, 
at  any  price,  will  ensue.  The  attacks  by  the 
Germans  on  London,  and  other  unprotected 
English  cities,  show  clearly  that  they  aim  to 
exterminate  as  many  British  as  they  are  able 
without  regard  to  either  age  or  sex. 

London  is  as  much  a  fortified  city  as  is 


80  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

New  York  City,  with  Governors  Island  near- 
by, which  means,  of  course,  that  in  a  military 
sense,  it  is  not  a  fortified  city  at  all.  Bombs  are 
dropped  from  such  a  height  that  absolutely 
no  accuracy  can  be  obtained,  and  the  Horse 
Guards  or  Tower  of  London  might  not  be  hit 
even  if  the  hostile  aircraft,  without  interfer- 
ence, dropped  its  bombs  from  exactly  over- 
head. The  ordinary  height  of  raids  while  I 
was  in  England,  was  14,000  feet.  Assume,  in 
addition,  that  the  hostile  aircraft  is  travelling 
seventy  or  more  miles  an  hour,  then  one  can 
appreciate  the  difficulty  of  accurate  bomb- 
dropping.  Since  all  Englishmen  from  nine- 
teen to  forty-five  years  of  age  are  in  the  army, 
unless  exempt,  and  are  presumably  away  on 
duty,  the  Germans  must  know  if  they  bomb 
an  English  residential  section,  that  old  men, 
and  particularly  women  and  children,  will  be 
the  main  sufferers.  If  they  kill  a  soldier,  it 
must  be  when  he  is  home  on  leave.  Most  of 
the  bombs  have  been  dropped  in  the  resi- 
dential and  hotel  sections.  Once,  entirely  by 
accident,  a  bomb  struck  a  barracks,  and  while 
I  was  in  London,  a  bomb  fell  on  one  of  the 
few  German  landmarks,  a  German  gym- 
nasium. "The  folks  at  home"  are  what  they 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  81 

are  after,  and  women  and  children  furnish  the 
greatest  number  of  their  victims. 

The  aircraft  attacks  on  Great  Britain  began 
with  Zeppelin  raids,  which  at  first  caused 
great  damage.  They  came  at  great  heights, 
and  for  some  time  it  was  very  difficult  to 
injure  them.  The  anti-aircraft  guns  reached 
them  with  difficulty,  and  the  bullets  from  the 
machine  guns  of  the  British  aeroplanes  caused 
little  damage.  Finally,  incendiary  bullets,  to 
be  used  in  the  machine  guns  of  the  British 
aeroplanes,  were  invented,  the  purpose  of 
which  was  to  set  fire  to  the  gas  in  the  Zep- 
pelin's gas  bag.  There  were  three  kinds  of 
incendiary  bullets  produced,  and  there  was  a 
wide  difference  of  opinion  as  to  which  kind 
was  preferable.  An  aviator  named  Robinson 
decided  that  he  would  use  all  three  kinds  alter- 
nately, and  he  attacked  a  Zeppelin  and 
destroyed  it.  It  was  then  for  the  first  time 
discovered  that  the  effect  of  the  three  kinds  of 
incendiary  bullets,  combined,  was  much  bet- 
ter than  any  one  kind  singly.  Robinson- 
received  the  Victoria  Cross.  From  the  time 
that  he  brought  down  his  first  Zeppelin,  one 
was  destroyed  in  nearly  every  raid  on  England! 
thereafter. 


82  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

Zeppelins,  having  thus  proved  unsuccess- 
ful, aeroplanes  began  to  come  over  in  the  day- 
time. The  English  planes  attacked  them,  and 
they  were  further  subjected  to  fire  from  the 
anti-aircraft  guns.  The  practice  finally  was 
adopted  by  the  Germans  of  coming  over  on 
moonlight  nights,  when  rivers  and  other  nat- 
ural landmarks  could  be  used  as  guides.  The 
Zeppelins  had  come  over  on  cloudy  days  and 
nights,  but  the  aeroplanes  were  afraid  to  lose 
their  way  on  such  nights.  A  British  aviator 
told  me  that  if  a  German  aviator  came  over  in 
a  cloud  or  a  fog,  he  might  not  be  able  to  tell 
whether  he  were  flying  upside  down  or  right 
side  up,  for  the  reason  that  he  would  lose  all 
sense  of  direction.  At  the  present  time,  most 
of  the  attacks  on  London  are  made  by  aero- 
planes, coming  singly,  at  intervals  on  moon- 
light nights. 

I  arrived  in  London  at  the  ideal  time  for 
air-raids,  during  what  the  English  call  "the 
harvest  moon."  While  I  was  in  or  near  Lon- 
don, six  air-raids  took  place.  The  first  raid 
occurred  about  8  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Next 
day  I  saw  where  three  bombs  had  fallen.  One 
fell  in  St.  James  Park,  and  left  a  hole  about 
30x30x8  feet.  Windows,  seVeral  hundred  feet 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  83 

away,  were  shattered.  I  saw  a  five-story, 
wooden,  frame  house  beyond  St.  Pancras  Sta- 
tion, which  had  been  hit  by  a  bomb,  and  it 
appeared  as  if  a  section  40x40x40  feet  had 
been  bodily  cut  from  it.  A  bomb  fell  on  a 
hotel  near  the  one  in  which  I  was  staying, 
killing  several  persons  and  wounding  an 
American  lieutenant  in  the  arm.  The  British 
official  report  stated  that  fifteen  people  were 
killed  during  the  raid,  and  seventy  injured. 

As  a  sample  of  what  the  German  rulers  tell 
their  people,  let  us  look  at  the  official  Ger- 
man report,  as  published  next  day: 

"Last  night  our  airmen  attacked  England.  Bombs  were 
dropped  on  military  buildings  and  warehouses  in  the  heart 
of  London.  Fires  gave  evidence  of  the  effect.  All  our 
machines  returned  undamaged." 

I  believe  that  I  saw  where  everyone  of  the 
bombs  dropped  on  London  landed,  and  I  later 
saw  where  some  poor  workman's  home  had 
been  demolished  at  South  End.  After  most 
careful  inquiries,  I  could  not  find  that  a  single 
bomb  had  been  dropped  on  a  military  build- 
ing or  a  warehouse,  nor  were  there  any  fires. 
The  incendiary  bombs  formerly  dropped  from 
the  Zeppelins  caused  great  fires,  but  those 


84  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

dropped  from  aeroplanes  while  I  was  in  Lon- 
don did  not  cause  fires.  They  were  built  to 
demolish  and  kill. 

During  the  time  of  the  harvest  moon,  raids 
were  expected  every  evening;  in  fact,  they 
could  gauge  about  the  time  the  raiders  would 
arrive.  I  watched  the  next  raid  from  the  street 
in  front  of  my  hotel.  During  raids  the  streets 
were  deserted  except  by  Americans  and 
"drunks."  After  a  few  Americans  have  been 
killed,  they  will  learn  to  take  cover,  and  the 
"drunks"  will  have  the  streets  to  themselves.  I 
left  cover  during  raids  for  the  reason  that  I 
had  been  sent  abroad  to  study  the  very  thing 
that  was  happening,  and  it  was  my  business  to 
be  in  the  best  position  to  see.  Otherwise,  it 
was  foolhardiness,  not  bravery,  to  neglect  tak- 
ing cover.  I  could  clearly  see  the  bursting 
shells  in  the  sky,  but  was  unable  to  see  the  one 
German  aeroplane  that  had  penetrated  the 
London  barrage. 

The  next  day  I  saw  where  two  bombs  had 
been  dropped  in  quick  succession  on  Old  Kent 
Road,  near  Old  Grange  Street.  One  bomb 
had  fallen  in  the  center  of  the  street,  and 
another  in  the  middle  of  the  adjoining  block. 
Being  in  uniform,  I  was  admitted  inside  the 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  85 

police  lines.  It  was  a  poor  section  of  the  city, 
where  many  families  lived  in  each  small  house. 
I  counted,  approximately,  ISO  houses  that 
ranged  from  being  practically  demolished  to 
having  some  portion  of  their  fronts  blown  in. 
The  official  report  stated  that  seven  persons 
had  been  killed  and  twenty-five  injured.  The 
small  number  was  probably  because  the  raid 
took  place  at  8  o'clock.  Had  it  occurred  later, 
hundreds  would  have  been  killed  in  their  beds. 

The  one  raider  who  did  this  damage  had 
gotten  past  the  London  barrage  and  had  shut 
off  his  engine  when  high  in  the  air  to  the  west 
of  London.  He  then  planed  down  noiselessly 
towards  London,  with  his  engine  shut  off, 
dropped  the  two  bombs,  and  started  for  home 
as  fast  as  he  could.  It  is  the  practice  of  the 
German  raiders  to  get  rid  of  their  bombs  as 
fast  as  possible,  for  the  reason  that  the  bombs 
are  just  as  dangerous  to  them  in  the  air,  should 
a  bomb  be  struck  by  a  shell  from  the  ground, 
as  it  is  after  it  falls. 

The  next  night  was  foggy,  and  London 
drew  a  sigh  of  relief,  for  this  meant  no  air 
raid.  The  following  night,  a  raid  on  London 
was  expected,  but  was  aimed  elsewhere.  On 
the  night  that  followed  came  a  raid,  but  no 


86  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

hostile  plane  got  through  the  London  defences. 
The  next  night  another  raid  occurred.  I 
could  plainly  see  the  burstingshrapnel  directly 
overhead.  I  first  went  out  on  the  street  with 
a  Canadian  officer  who  had  served  in  the 
American  Army  during  the  war  with  Spain. 
The  streets  were  deserted,  except  for  the 
usual  intoxicated  men.  Even  the  police  had 
taken  shelter.  Thinking  that  we  might  see 
better  from  a  higher  elevation,  we  returned  to 
the  hotel,  where  many  guests  were  huddled 
away  from  the  shafts  and  windows,  and  we 
were  looking  out  of  an  upper  window  when  an 
old  man  came  over  to  where  I  was  and,  timidly 
touching  my  coat,  said,  "Young  man,  you 
should  not  look  out  of  that  window;  your  life 
is  much  too  valuable  to  lose  it  in  that  way." 
I  said  that  I  wished  to  see  the  fighting.  He 
said,  "One  can  see  it  well  out  of  my  room." 
He  opened  the  door  of  his  room  and  went  to 
the  window,  and  we  could  see  the  bursting 
shells.  Suddenly,  he  realized  where  he  was, 
and  crying  out,  "Oh,  I  should  not  be  here,  I 
should  be  in  the  hallway,"  he  ran  from  the 
room.  I  saw  all  I  could,  and  then  I  heard  one 
of  the  maids  say,  "The  best  place  is  on  the  roof, 
but  no  one  is  allowed  to  go  there  because  of 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  87 

f 

falling  shrapnel."  Up  on  the  roof  my  newly- 
found  friend  and  I  went,  and  we  discovered  a 
most  wonderful  fight  going  on  over  our  heads. 

Across  the  sky  came  burst  after  burst  of 
exploding  shells  following  the  course  of  the 
German  aeroplanes.  Suddenly,  another  series 
of  bursts  would  take  place  in  another  direc- 
tion. Several  fights  were  going  on  in  several 
different  directions  at  once,  accompanied  by 
what  sounded  like  exploding  bombs.  After 
about  ten  minutes,  the  manager  of  the  hotel 
came  up  and  ordered  us  off  the  roof.  I  do  not 
blame  him  for  being  careful,  for  I  learned 
afterwards,  that  a  bomb  had  fallen  on  the 
hotel  a  short  time  before  I  arrived,  and  that 
fifteen  people  had  been  killed.  This,  per- 
haps, explains  why  most  of  the  people  were  so 
anxious  to  take  cover.  On  my  way  down- 
stairs from  the  roof,  I  met  a  young  Canadian 
lieutenant  "from  Arizona,"  who  suggested 
going  out  on  the  street.  As  we  went,  I  heard 
one  of  the  maids  say,  in  a  loud  tone  of  aston- 
ishment, "Why  they  enjoy  it." 

We  had  the  streets  almost  to  ourselves. 
Above  our  heads,  the  shells  from  the  anti-air- 
craft guns  continued  to  explode.  A  shell  fell 
into  the  street  near  us  and  half  buried  itself  in 


88  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

the  roadway.  Almost  as  soon  as  it  fell,  some 
men  ran  over  from  a  neighboring  building 
and  began  digging  for  it.  Crowds  of  people 
were  huddled  in  doorways,  and  my  Canadian 
friend  would  jocularly  ask  them  what  was  all 
the  excitement.  He  told  me  he  knew  of  sev- 
eral places  where  the  crowds  from  the  theatres 
went  to  get  shelter,  so  he  and  I  varied  watch- 
ing the  bursting  shrapnel  with  wandering 
about  and  looking  over  the  crowds  that  were 
taking  shelter.  When  my  newly-made  friend 
saw  a  number  of  people  who  looked  particu- 
larly disconsolate,  he  would  remark,  in  a  loud 
tone  of  voice,  "There  must  be  a  raid ;  this  is  a 
most  terrible  occasion."  The  official  report 
stated  that  eleven  persons  were  killed  and 
eighty-two  injured. 

About  a  month  before,  raiders  dropped  a 
bomb  in  a  street  off  the  Strand.  The  street 
had  been  repaired  when  I  saw  it,  and  a  hotel 
opposite,  in  which  several  people  were  killed 
in  their  beds,  was  being  rebuilt.  Holes  were 
blown  through  solid  brick  walls  some  distance 
away.  Anyone  standing  within  a  radius  of 
several  hundred  feet  might  have  been  killed, 
and  if  much  closer,  would  surely  have  been 
killed  unless  they  were  lying  on  the  ground. 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  89 

The  most  pathetic  raid  was  when  a  bomb  fell 
upon  a  children's  school.  I  was  told  that  chil- 
dren's arms  and  legs  and  heads  were  scattered 
around  a  bloody  street  littered  with  little 
mangled  bodies. 

Though  the  damage  caused  by  the  dropping 
bombs  seems  to  be  great,  much  of  the  loss  of 
life  comes  from  flying  shrapnel  and  pieces  of 
high  explosive  shells  from  the  British  anti- 
aircraft guns,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that 
everything  that  goes  up  must  come  down. 
While  I  was  in  London,  a  young  girl  went  to 
her  front  window  to  look  at  the  raid  when  an 
anti-aircraft  shell  came  through  the  window 
of  the  bedroom  above,  crashed  through  the 
ceiling,  and  struck  her  on  the  head.  Many 
others  were  killed,  likewise,  by  the  fire  of  the 
home  defence  guns.  The  English  prevent 
more  loss  of  life  by  ordering  all  the  inhabi- 
tants to  take  shelter. 

As  for  reprisals,  whenever  I  heard  it  said 
that  Americans  and  Britons  must  not  adopt 
German  methods  of  warfare,  I  am  reminded 
of  a  little  incident  that  occurred  on  a  railroad 
train  in  England.  A  friend  of  mine,  a  civil- 
ian, was  talking,  and  there  were  three  British 
Tommies  in  the  same  carriage,  apparently 


90  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

paying  no  attention  to  what  was  being  said. 
My  friend  remarked  that  English  soldiers 
would  never  be  willing  to  attack  unfortified 
German  cities  through  the  air,  and  thus  be  the 
cause  of  killing  women  and  children.  No 
sooner  were  the  words  out  of  his  mouth,  than 
the  three  Tommies  shouted  in  chorus,  "Oh! 
wouldn't  we !" 


CHAPTER  XII 

WITH  THE  BRITISH  BATTERIES 

I  WAS  overjoyed  when  I  received  permis- 
sion from  the  British  Home  Defence  Office  to 
join  some  anti-aircraft  batteries  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Thames,  at  a  point  where  the 
raiders,  following  the  course  of  the  river, 
would  first  arrive  over  England.  Once  the 
Germans  had  tried  to  destroy  the  place  by 
dropping  twenty-eight  bombs  on  it,  and  shortly 
after  five  more.  They  succeeded  in  killing 
two  persons.  One  bomb,  meant  for  a  powder 
boat  in  the  harbor,  was  dropped  by  a  German 
who  flew  low  to  insure  accuracy.  The  bomb 
actually  dropped  in  the  water  between  the 
boat  and  the  wharf,  in  a  space  of  about  two 
feet,  and  did  not  explode. 

I  arrived  on  Sunday.  That  night  about 
fourteen  German  planes  came  overhead, 
passing  from  the  continent,  on  their  way  to 
bomb  London,  and  I  was  with  the  British  bat- 
teries in  action  against  them.  We  could  hear 
the  drone  of  the  German  motors  above  us. 


92  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

Sometimes  the  aeroplanes,  themselves,  could 
be  seen  indistinctly  against  the  moon.  All  was 
silence  at  the  guns  until  the  gun  commander 
considered  he  had  the  proper  range,  and  then 
the  racket  began.  Few  sights  are  more  won- 
derful than  many  guns  in  action  at  the  same 
time.  The  noise  was  deafening  until  the  Ger- 
man raiders  got  out  of  range,  and  our  work 
was  taken  up  by  the  batteries  nearer  London. 
The  next  evening,  while  I  was  eating  my 
dinner,  air-raid  signals  came  and  the  firing 
began.  The  shrapnel  could  be  heard  bursting 
high  up  in  the  air  somewhere  above  the  house, 
and  the  windows  rattled  with  each  explosion. 
The  officers  off  duty  took  their  time  about 
finishing  eating,  after  which  I  accompanied 
the  Commandant  to  the  guns,  where  he 
assumed  command.  High  in  the  air,  forming 
a  zone  of  fire,  were  the  bursting  shells  from 
the  guns  of  our  batteries.  From  above,  came 
the  drone  of  the  German  motors.  It  reminded 
one  of  a  good,  old-fashioned  Fourth  of  July, 
only  more  of  it.  An  added  excitement  comes 
from  the  fact  that  the  Germans  can  see  the 
flash  from  the  battery  and  may  succeed  in 
landing  a  bomb  close  enough  to  put  it  out  of 
commission. 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  93 

I  have  mentioned  days,  so  as  to  illustrate 
what  was  not  such  an  extraordinary  week  for  a 
Londoner  as  Americans  might  imagine.  I 
had  arrived  in  London  on  a  Sunday.  There 
had  taken  place  in  nine  days,  a  total  of  six 
air-raids  on  London,  and  one  attack  elsewhere. 

Next  day,  as  I  was  working  at  my  books,  I 
heard  what  seemed  a  familiar  drone  overhead, 
and  soon  the  alarm  came  that  a  day  raid  was 
being  attempted.  The  batteries  were  manned, 
but  did  not  get  a  chance  to  fire.  I  learned, 
later,  that  by  mistake,  a  British  seaplane,  com- 
ing from  the  ocean  had  flown  without  giving 
notice,  through  the  zone  from  which  only 
enemies  usually  came.  As  a  result,  an  alarm 
was  given  and  business  in  London  and  other 
places  was  suspended  for  hours.  The  head  of 
the  anti-aircraft  service  was  very  clever  in 
explaining  the  mistake  to  the  public.  As  may 
be  well  imagined,  an  alarm  creates  real  alarm 
and  the  public  would  be  even  more  caustic  in 
criticising  the  anti-aircraft  service  were  they 
sent  to  cover  and  prevented  from  attending  to 
their  business  for  some  hours  because  of  base- 
less alarms.  He  got  ovej  the  difficulty  beauti- 
fully, by  having  all  the  papers  publish 
accounts  to  the  effect,  that  the  raiders  had  been 


94  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

successfully  driven  off,  whereupon  everybody 
said,  "Good,  old,  anti-aircraft  service,  it  is 
really  getting  quite  efficient." 

The  personnel  of  the  British  anti-aircraft 
troops  for  home  defence  has  changed  mate- 
rially. The  British  began  with  a  system 
under  which  volunteers  did  duty  every  third 
night.  There  was  little  discipline  among 
these  troops,  and  many  of  the  men,  because  of 
age  and  physical  condition,  were  unfit  for 
their  work.  The  chief  of  this  service  was  con- 
stantly annoyed  because  at  the  last  moment 
when  news  was  received  of  a  coming  raid, 
some  man  would  call  up  and  say  that  he  had, 
for  instance,  a  stomach-ache  and  it  thereupon 
became  necessary  for  the  head  of  the  service 
to  find  some  other  volunteer,  whose  turn  it  was 
to  be  off  duty,  to  take  the  place  of  the  man 
who  claimed  to  be  ill.  The  aircraft  attacks 
on  Great  Britain  became  so  numerous  that 
these  volunteers  were  told  that  they  would  be 
obliged  to  enter  the  regular  service  and  serve 
continuously  or  be  discharged.  The  old  and 
physically  unfit  were  thus  forced  out,  and  an 
efficient  fighting  force  of  young  men  was  left. 
These  men  are  now  the  same  as  regulars,  and 
are  on  duty  all  the  time.  They  do  not  attend 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  95 

to  their  business  when  they  are  off  duty,  as 
their  work  at  their  guns  takes  too  much  of 
their  time  to  permit  this. 

The  question  has  been  continuously  asked 
why  London  suffers  from  air-raids  while  Paris 
has  been  nearly  exempt.  There  are  many  rea- 
sons and  I  will  state  a  few  of  them.  In  the 
case  of  London,  the  raiders  from  the  conti- 
nent, following  the  Thames  or  other  natural 
landmarks,  are  over  London  in  a  very  few 
moments  after  reaching  land.  They  are  not 
subjected  to  gun  fire  while  crossing  the  chan- 
nel and  the  only  opportunity  of  the  British 
to  fight  them  is  during  those  comparatively 
few  moments  when  the  hostile  aircrafts  are 
over  England.  The  situation  in  the  case  of 
Paris  is  very  different.  Hostile  aircraft  must 
first  pass  several  entrenched  French  armies, 
each  of  which  is  prepared  to  send  up  artillery 
barrages  and  to  have  its  fighting  aeroplanes 
follow  the  enemy.  The  aeroplanes  at  the 
British  front  take  no  part  in  the  defence  of 
London.  The  aeroplanes  at  the  French  front 
are  part  of  the  defences  of  Paris.  When  one 
considers  that  every  city  is  largely  deprived 
of  aeroplanes  for  the  benefit  of  the  armies  at 
the  front,  one  can  imagine  the  great  advantage 


96  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

if  those  same  aeroplanes  can  still  at  the  front 
be  used  in  the  city's  defence. 

In  addition  to  London  being  easier  to  at- 
tack, there  is  another  factor  and  that  is  that 
Germany  hates  England  and  wishes  to  bring 
home  to  English  people  the  same  suffering 
which  Germany  has  been  able  to  inflict  on 
her  other  enemies.  Northeastern  France  has 
been  stripped  bare.  England  itself  also  must 
be  taught  the  cost  of  opposing  the  Prussian 
war-lord  and  German  terrorizing  means  the 
killing  of  non-combatants  and  the  doing  of 
all  material  damage  possible. 

There  is  one  other  reason  why  London 
seems  to  be  attacked  more  than  Paris.  The 
British  report  all  raids  while  I  have  heard  it 
said  that  the  French  do  not.  Whether  France 
suppresses  news  of  raids  or  not,  the  fact  re- 
mains that  the  raiders  constantly  reach  Lon- 
don while  Paris  is  seemingly  free  from  con- 
stant attack. 

The  British  are  not  idle.  A  stay  at  their 
artillery  school  and  an  inspection  of  the  Lon- 
don defences  showed  me  that.  They  are  grad- 
ually developing  a  defence  that  in  the  end 
may  successfully  keep  away  raiders.  At  night 
when  approaching  enemy  aircraft  cannot  be 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  97 

seen,  a  barrage  or  wall  of  fire  is  sent  up  and 
a  hostile  aircraft  must  go  through  it  or  turn 
back  if  it  cannot  get  around  it. 

Anti-aircraft  artillery  is  still  in  its  infancy, 
particularly  night  fighting,  which  is  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  the  Germans  are  limiting  their 
raids  to  dark  nights  when  they  cannot  be 
seen.  Britain  is  working  hard  on  her  anti- 
aircraft problem,  and  she  may  at  any  time  find 
the  secret  of  stopping  aeroplanes  just  as  she 
did  in  the  case  of  the  Zeppelins. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

WHAT  TO  DO  IN  AN  AIR  RAID 

SINCE  the  United  States  may  be  attacked 
from  air  at  any  moment,  it  will  be  well  to  set 
forth  what  precautions  the  British  have  taken 
to  minimize  the  damage  done  by  air  raids. 

The  City  of  London  is  kept  as  dark  at  night 
as  is  consistent  with  safe  passage  through  the 
streets.  A  few  street  lamps  are  dimly  lighted. 
All  shades  over  windows  of  buildings  must 
be  lowered.  In  every  room  of  each  hotel  is 
the  following  sign  for  the  benefit  of  strangers : 

"DEFENCE  OF  THE  REALM  ACT,  ORDER  IN  COUNCIL 
"In  compliance  with  the  above,  it  is  requested  that 
blinds  (shades)  be  kept  lowered  between  sunset  and  sun- 
rise.   A  breach  of  this  regulation  renders  the  visitor  liable 
to  a  penalty  not  exceeding  £50." 

All  outer  doors  must  be  securely  closed,  and 
many  persons  have  been  arrested  and  fined 
because  a  small  reflected  light  showed  through 
a  crack. 

The  worst  damage  that  can  be  sustained  by 


100  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

any  city  is  loss  of  life,  and  this  can  be  largely 
eliminated  if  the  inhabitants  of  the  bombed 
city  will  obey  certain  simple  rules  of  conduct. 
The  London  authorities  have  published  rules 
which,  in  their  essential  particulars,  should  be 
adopted  by  the  authorities  of  our  cities  likely 
to  be  attacked,  and  should  be  learned  and 
obeyed  by  the  inhabitants.  I  set  them  forth 
at  length : 

"The  following  recommendations  are  to  be  read  as  gen- 
eral rules  to  be  followed  by  each  person  so  far  as  they 
apply  to  the  circumstances  in  which  he  finds  himself. 

"Do  not  pay  heed  to  mere  rumors  of  a  raid,  but  as  soon 
as  you  know,  whether  from  a  public  warning  or  from 
anti-aircraft  guns  coming  into  action  or  from  the  explo- 
sion of  bombs,  that  an  attack  is  imminent  or  has  begun, 
take  the  best  cover  near  at  hand. 

"Do  not  wait  till  you  see  aircraft  nearly  overhead  or 
hear  the  explosion  of  a  bomb  near  you.  You  cannot  tell 
how  near  the  next  bomb  may  fall,  especially  at  night,  and 
apart  from  the  danger  from  bombs,  fragments  of  shell  may 
fall  a  long  way  from  the  guns.  To  stay  in  the  open  in- 
volves needless  risk  even  if  the  attack  seems  a  long  way  off. 

"If  you  are  in  the  open,  go  into  the  nearest  available 
building.  A  doorway  or  open  archway,  though  better 
than  remaining  in  the  open,  is  not  good  cover,  as  it  affords 
little  protection  against  fragments  of  a  bomb  exploding  on 
the  ground. 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

"If  bombs  are  being  dropped  and  there  is  no  building 
near,  it  is  better  to  lie  down  on  the  ground  in  the  best 
ditch  or  hole  you  can  find  near  at  hand,  or  behind  a  strong 
wall  or  tree,  than  to  remain  standing  in  the  open. 

"If  you  are  in  a  building  on  the  top  floor,  go  downstairs 
where  you  will  have  the  best  available  cover  overhead, 
avoiding  lift  wells,  open  stairways,  and  parts  of  the  build- 
ing under  skylights. 

"Do  not  look  out  of  windows,  but  keep  in  a  part  of  a 
room  or  passage  where  you  will  be  out  of  the  line  of  frag- 
ments of  metal  or  debris  which  may  enter  by  a  window  or 
if  a  bomb  should  explode  outside. 

"Do  not  crowd  in  a  basement  with  only  a  single  means 
of  exit.  The  fumes  from  all  bombs  are  injurious  if 
breathed  in  any  quantity,  and  it  is  advisable  to  have  a 
second  means  of  exit  in  case  fumes  should  enter,  or  a  gas 
pipe  be  broken,  or  rapid  escape  be  necessary  for  any  other 
reason. 

"Horses,  if   left   unattended,  should  be  secured  suffi- 
ciently to  prevent  their  running  away. 
"FIRE  PRECAUTIONS 

"Water  is  far  the  best  extinguisher  for  general  use 
against  fires  caused  by  incendiary  bombs,  and  should  be 
applied  as  promptly  as  possible.  Keep  a  supply  of  water 
ready  in  buckets  or  cans,  some  on  each  floor  if  possible. 
See  that  they  are  kept  filled. 

"Liquid  fire  extinguishers  and  hand-pumps  for  direct- 
ing the  water  on  to  the  flames  are  very  useful,  though 
more  expensive. 

"You  are  advised  not  to  buy  an  extinguisher  without  a 


]G2  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

i 

written  guarantee  that  it  complies  with  the  specifications 
of  the  Board  of  Trade  Office  of  Works,  Metropolitan 
Police,  or  some  approved  Fire  Prevention  Committee. 

"A  supply  of  fine  dry  sand  or  soil  may  be  kept  ready,  in 
pails  or  scuttles,  in  addition  to  water,  especially  where 
there  are  inflammable  liquids  which  might  be  set  alight. 
See  that  the  sand  or  soil  does  not  cake. 

"If  the  gas  is  turned  off  at  the  meter,  see  that  all  burners 
are  turned  off  as  well;  otherwise  there  will  be  serious 
risk  of  fire  and  explosion  when  the  gas  is  turned  on  again. 

"Make  a  note  of  the  quickest  means  of  summoning  the 
Fire  Brigade — whether  by  telephone  or  the  nearest  fire 
alarm  post. 

"UNEXPLODED  BOMBS  AND  SHELLS 

"Do  not  move  or  touch  any  unexploded  bomb  or  shell. 
The  police  should  be  informed  at  once  where  any  such 
missile  is  lying  and  steps  should  be  taken  to  prevent  its 
being  interfered  with  meanwhile. 

"If  the  bomb  has  broken,  and  powdered  explosive  has 
been  scattered  about,  do  not  bring  a  naked  light  near. 
"FUMES  FROM  BOMBS 

"Be  careful  not  to  breathe  fumes  given  off  by  bombs. 
Do  not  go  near  where  any  bomb  has  fallen  unless  it  is 
necessary  to  do  so  for  rescue  purposes  or  to  extinguish  a 
fire,  or  unless  you  are  sure  all  fumes  have  cleared  away. 

"If  a  bomb  falls  near  you,  get  away  from  the  place 
where  it  has  fallen  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  keep  away 
until  the  air  has  cleared.  If  you  are  indoors  and  fumes 
have  entered  the  building,  go  out  into  the  open  away  from 
where  the  bomb  has  fallen;  and  if  the  raid  is  not  over, 
find  other  shelter. 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  103 

"While  good  cover  is  the  point  of  most  importance, 
choose,  if  you  can,  rooms,  corridors,  etc.,  where  in  addi- 
tion to  cover  overhead,  there  are  alternative  means  of 
exit,  so  that  if  fumes  should  enter  from  one  direction  you 
may  be  able  to  escape  the  other  way. 

"It  is  better  to  avoid  going  near  the  place  where  any 
bomb  has  fallen  than  to  trust  to  respirators.  If,  how- 
ever, you  desire  to  keep  a  respirator  available  for  use  in 
case  it  should  be  necessary  to  enter  a  room  where  there 
may  be  noxious  fumes,  make  sure  that  the  respirator  is 
guaranteed  by  the  maker  to  comply  in  all  essential  points 
with  War  Office  specifications.  Do  not  on  any  account 
rely  on  a  respirator  offered  for  sale  unless  it  is  accom- 
panied by  such  a  guarantee. 

"USE  OF  THE  TELEPHONE 

"Do  not  use  the  telephone  during,  or  immediately  after, 
a  raid  except  for  the  most  necessary  and  urgent  calls. 

"FALSE  REPORTS  OF  AIR-RAIDS 

"Remember  it  is  an  offence  punishable  by  fine  or  im- 
prisonment under  the  Defence  of  the  Realm  Regulations 
to  spread  false  reports  of  an  air-raid  warning  having  been 
issued  or  an  air-raid  having  taken  place." 

If  a  house  is  fairly  well  built,  occupants, 
may  consider  themselves  reasonably  safe  from 
injury,  except  from  broken  glass,  if  there  are 
two  stones  above  them,  though  three  stories, 
afford  a  surer  protection.  It  has  been  found 
by  experience  that  a  bomb  will  expend  most 


104  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

of  its  force  in  the  two  upper  stories  of  a  fairly 
well  built  house. 

The  surest  way  to  be  safe,  however,  is  to  fit 
up  and  occupy  during  raid  alarms  a  little 
place  in  the  most  secluded  part  of  the  cellar 
where  one  can  perhaps  forget  in  the  pages  of 
some  interesting  book  that  Germany  is  trying 
to  inflict  wholesale  murder  upon  him  and  all 
who  reside  in  his  neighborhood. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  BRAVEST  OF  THE  BRAVE 

TRAGEDY  was  all  about  us  there  in  England. 
Bereavement,  poverty  and  actual  physical 
danger  were  never  absent  from  the  minds  of 
the  English  people.  Yet  there  is  something 
extraordinarily  splendid  about  the  way  in 
which  everything  is  done  that  can  be  legiti- 
mately done  to  maintain  the  amenities  of  life 
and  to  add  what  charm  and  cheer  is  possible 
to  daily  life.  It  is  an  ever  recurrent  surprise 
to  Americans  when  it  is  first  born  in  upon 
them  that  this  war  is  not  a  distant  thing  fought 
in  some  out-lying  part  of  the  world,  to  which 
troops  are  sent  and  from  which,  in  time,  they 
return,  but  that  the  ugliness  and  simplicity 
and  bitter  practicality  of  military  life  is  super- 
imposed directly  upon  the  most  finished  civil- 
izations, the  most  beautifully  cultivated 
country-sides  and  the  most  charming  homes. 
Something  of  that  idea  struck  me  on  my  first 
visit  to  an  English  country  house  when  I  saw 
my  modest  military  toilet  articles,  last  in  use 


106  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

on  the  Mexican  border,  spread  out  upon  the 
priceless  antique  bureau  in  one  of  the  loveliest 
sleeping  rooms  I  have  ever  entered  and  when 
I  realized  that  just  such  strictly  utilitarian  and 
dun-colored  equipment  were  the  treasured 
possessions  of  every  house  in  England. 

That  evening  at  dinner  I  succeeded  in  prov- 
ing for  the  first  time  that  Captain  Ward  is 
not  infallible.  We  talked  of  America  and 
my  host  and  his  guests  were  far  from  infuri- 
ated. They  were,  on  the  contrary,  intensely 
interested  and  sympathetic.  If  America  and 
England  can  come  to  understand  each  other 
and  love  each  other  as  brothers  should,  it  will 
almost  be  worth  the  bitter  price  we  have  had 
to  pay  for  such  friendship.  The  English 
speaking  races  of  the  world  can  insure  peace 
and  freedom  for  all  humanity,  if  they  will 
only  drop  all  international  rivalry  and  jeal- 
ousy, and  stand  by  one  another  in  every  pos- 
sible way. 

While  the  English  have  cut  down  ostenta- 
tion as  far  as  possible,  they  have  maintained 
the  simple  comforts  of  life  to  an  extraordinary 
degree,  sometimes  with  amusing  results.  I 
was  awakened  one  morning  by  a  knock  at  my 
door,  and  getting  out  of  bed  very  scantily 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  107 

draped,  supposing  the  valet  had  arrived,  I 
opened  the  door  and  in  tripped  a  dainty  little 
servant  girl  carrying  hot  water.  I  got  hastily 
back  into  bed  again  and  she  departed.  A  few 
minutes  later  I  had  risen  again  and  was  pre- 
paring to  shave,  when  the  door  flew  open  and 
she  walked  in,  this  time  carrying  a  breakfast 
tray.  I  had  just  recovered  from  my  second 
fright  and  was  preparing  to  eat  my  breakfast, 
when  she  returned  with  my  boots.  After  that 
I  kept  the  door  locked  until  I  was  fit  to  be 
seen.  When  I  began  to  get  ready  for  the  train 
I  found  that  the  maid  had  completely  packed 
my  roll  and  that  it  was  in  the  carriage  waiting 
for  me.  Some  day  I  hope  to  find  out  where 
in  my  room  that  maid  had  hidden  that  roll, 
for  I  hunted  for  it  "from  top  to  bottom." 

The  coachman  who  drove  me  to  the  station 
told  me  that  his  brother  had  just  been  blinded 
In  military  service;  he  himself  had  been 
examined  and  rejected  five  times  for  physical 
disability.  When  I  arrived  at  my  hotel,  I 
read  in  the  morning  papers  that  an  air-raid 
had  taken  place  in  the  evening  previous  while 
we  were  at  dinner. 

I  quote  the  foregoing  story  to  illustrate  the 
British  point  of  view.  Whether  my  hostess 


108  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

and  host  knew  an  air-raid  was  going  on,  per- 
haps overhead,  I  have  no  means  of  knowing, 
but  they  must  have  known  that  an  air-raid  was 
expected  to  occur  that  evening.  They  typify 
the  point  of  view  of  the  ordinary  intelligent 
Britisher  concerning  air-raids,  namely  to  take 
all  reasonable  precautions  as  to  cover  and  then 
forget  about  them. 

Another  British  point  of  view  as  to  material 
damage  caused  by  raids  was  shown  by  an  inci- 
dent that  occurred  while  I  was  examining 
some  bombed  houses.  One  of  the  occupants, 
who  had  lost  apparently  everything  he  owned 
in  the  world,  was  showing  me  the  damage  and 
did  not  seem  very  much  disturbed  by  what 
had  been  done  to  his  property.  I  asked  him 
in  as  sympathetic  a  tone  as  I  could  muster 
whether  his  loss  had  been  great.  "Oh,  no!" 
he  answered,  "I  am  insured."  Both  the  Gov- 
ernment and  private  companies  give  cheap 
insurance  against  loss  caused  by  air-raids,  and 
the  Government  is  now  planning  to  give  such 
service  free.  This  insurance  is  becoming  a 
war  measure  because  it  prevents  the  Germans 
from  succeeding  in  their  attempts  to  dis- 
hearten the  mass  of  the  English  population. 

British  character  is  changing.     The  slow, 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  109 

conservative,  self-satisfied  individual  formerly 
depicted  in  our  comic  weeklies  has  departed, 
and  in  his  place  stands  a  quick-acting,  pro- 
gressive person  who  wishes  to  improve 
methods  wherever  possible.  Great  Britain 
has  been  "cleansed  by  fire."  Her  tremendous 
losses  caused  by  lack  of  foresight,  the  ever 
impending  possibility  of  defeat  unless  tremen- 
dous efforts  are  made  by  the  nation  as  a  whole, 
have  inculcated  new  ideas  and  ideals  into  the 
national  character. 

Formerly  the  belief  in  the  rights  of  the 
individual  as  distinct  from  those  of  the  nation 
as  a  whole  seemed  ingrained.  That  a  free- 
born  Englishman  should  be  made  to  serve  in 
the  army  only  if  he  wished,  appeared  axiom- 
atic. Conscription  was  hard  for  the  ordinary 
Englishman  to  swallow,  and  yet  today  the 
motto  that  "England  expects  every  man  to  do 
his  duty"  should  read  "England  compels 
every  man  to  do  his  duty."  It  has  found  ready 
assent. 

The  old  British  belief  in  the  rights  of  the 
individual  finds  expression  in  the  provision 
that  conscientious  objectors  to  the  draft  need 
not  be  obliged  to  serve.  In  the  United  States 
a  man  is  exempted  providing  he  belongs  to 


110  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

a  religious  denomination  that  keeps  him  from 
warfare,  but  in  England  a  man  needs  only  to 
"object  conscientiously"  in  order  to  be 
exempted.  This  means  that  British  conscrip- 
tion is  a  form  of  voluntary  conscription,  and 
yet,  to  the  credit  of  the  British  let  it  be  said, 
that  conscientious  objectors  are  comparatively 
few. 

The  English  belief  in  the  rights  of  the  indi- 
vidual was  typified  by  an  occurrence  in  Lon- 
don while  I  was  there.  A  noted  pacifist  min- 
ister announced  a  pacifist  sermon,  and  the 
authorities  sent  one  hundred  and  fifty  con- 
stables to  protect  him.  In  the  United  States 
there  would  have  been  sent  one  stenographer 
to  take  down  his  sermon  as  evidence,  and  two 
policemen  to  arrest  him.  Though  the  London 
pacifist  preached  sedition,  the  police  protected 
him  from  a  howling  mob.  The  English 
authorities  have  not  yet  learned  that  there  is  a 
great  difference  between  free  speech  and  the 
right  to  give  utterance  to  seditious  ideas. 

The  English  treatment  of  Ireland  is  diffi- 
cult to  understand.  It  is  difficult  for  Ameri- 
cans to  understand  why  Great  Britain  does 
not  give  Ireland  home  rule;  it  is  equally  diffi- 
cult for  Englishmen,  Scotchmen  and  Welsh- 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  111 

men  to  understand  why  Irishmen  shouldn't  be 
made  to  serve  in  the  army  as  they  are  forced 
to  do.  In  her  treatment  of  Ireland,  Britain 
has  inconsistently  ranged  from  extreme  sever- 
ity to  what  seems  extraordinary  good  nature 
and  the  two  follow  each  other  with  remarka- 
ble speed  and  without  apparent  reason. 

The  British  formerly  gave  a  man  a  com- 
mission in  the  army  because  of  his  family  or 
social  standing;  now  they  give  it  to  him 
because  of  his  military  ability,  and  because  he 
deserves  it.  Britain  now  makes  a  prominent 
show  of  her  democracy.  I  saw  in  London  a 
very  amusing  play  which  showed  the  changed 
British  point  of  view,  and  which  set  forth 
pleasantly  how  real  Democracy  is  getting  a 
hold  on  Britain's  social  life.  The  play  was 
called  "General  Post"  and  next  to  the  musical 
comedies  it  was  having  a  good  run. 

The  first  act  is  laid  in  1911;  the  heroine 
falls  in  love  with  her  father's  tailor,  who  is  a 
successful  one  and  an  officer  in  the  territorials 
(like  our  National  Guard) ;  her  father  being 
one  of  the  old  school,  loudly  proclaims  that 
there  is  no  possibility  of  war  with  Germany 
and  that  the  territorials  are  of  no  use ;  he  states 
that  Germany  knows  that  if  she  went  to  war 


112  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

with  Great  Britain  she  would  be  wiped  off  the 
map  in  a  week;  the  tailor,  recognizing  his 
inferior  social  status,  tells  the  heroine  he  can- 
not marry  her.  The  second  act  is  laid  in  1915 ; 
the  tailor  is  Colonel  of  the  territorial  battalion 
in  which  the  heroine's  brother  holds  a  com- 
mission as  second  lieutenant;  her  father  is  a 
private  in  the  volunteers,  father  and  son,  being 
military  inferiors  to  the  tailor,  are  now  well 
disposed,  but  not  the  mother,  who  still  retains 
the  old  ideas  of  caste.  The  third  act  is  laid 
after  the  war;  the  hero  is  a  Brigadier-General 
and,  for  saving  the  victorious  army  at  the  risk 
of  his  life  at  a  critical  point,  he  is  given  the 
Victoria  Cross  and  is  about  to  be  promoted 
and  made  a  baronet;  all  England  is  filled  with 
his  praises;  mother,  father  and  brother  are 
now  anxious  for  the  girl  to  marry  him,  but 
now  the  heroine  refuses.  Finally,  by  accident 
she  is  thrown  into  a  position  where  she  accepts 
him  and  the  curtain  goes  down  on  a  "bear 
hug." 

The  foregoing  outline  hardly  does  justice 
to  the  play  which  was  cleverly  acted  and 
brought  home  a  salutary  lesson  to  its  audience. 
That  such  a  play  should  be  popular  speaks  for 
the  changing  British  point  of  view. 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  113 

The  feeling  of  ordinary  Britons  for  the 
Americans  is  very  friendly  at  the  present  time. 
They  greatly  admire  President  Wilson  and 
they  now  believe  that  he  wished  to  be  in  the 
war  from  its  inception  but  was  held  back  be- 
cause he  did  not  have  a  united  nation  behind 
him.  They  do  not  believe  that  he  at  any  time 
was  a  pacifist  and  are  quite  ready  to  withdraw 
all  the  disagreeable  statements  formerly  writ- 
ten and  said  about  him.  The  President's  notes 
and  messages  are  eagerly  read  and,  since  our 
entry  into  the  war,  are  welcomed  as  master- 
pieces of  careful  diplomacy. 

Public  sentiment  in  the  United  States  is 
carefully  watched.  The  opinions  of  our  prom- 
inent men  are  sought  on  matters  affecting 
English  party  politics  and  our  editorials  are 
quoted  at  length  in  the  English  papers.  In 
fact  it  has  been  said  that  the  American  editor- 
ials are  more  read  and  have  more  real  effect 
in  England  than  they  do  in  the  United  States. 

I  am  constantly  asked  the  question,  "How 
do  the  British  feel  about  this  war?"  This* 
question  I  think  I  can  answer.  Britain  is: 
determined  to  win  this  war.  The  new  nation 
is  using  every  ounce  of  its  energy  to  utilize  all' 
it  possesses  of  people  and  wealth  for  that  end.. 


114  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

Britain  is  far  from  exhaustion  in  men  or 
money.  Efficiency  is  taking  the  place  of 
inefficiency.  Unnecessary  business  has  been 
made  to  give  in  to  the  conduct  of  business 
which  tends  towards  the  prosecution  of  the 
war.  Women  are  doing  all  they  can  to  free 
men  for  active  service  in  the  army.  Every- 
body's wealth  is  being  made  subject  to  the 
nation's  needs.  Whatever  may  happen  to  the 
individual  of  good  or  bad  the  war  must  be 
won.  With  that  slogan,  Britain  is  growing 
stronger  each  day,  and  her  victories  on  the 
fields  of  France  are  a  proof  of  the  efficiency 
of  her  newly  developed  point  of  view. 


CHAPTER  XV 

AMERICANS  WITH  THE  CANADIANS 

IT  HAS  been  said  that  there  are  nearly  thirty 
thousand  Americans  with  the  Canadians  in 
the  military  service  of  Great  Britain. 
Whether  attracted  by  love  of  adventure  or  by 
more  serious  motives,  since  1914,  and  until 
our  advent  in  the  war,  without  the  knowledge 
of  our  Government,  Americans  in  increasing 
numbers  have  been  crossing  into  Canada  to 
enlist.  Most  of  them  began  as  privates.  Many 
of  them  are  now  officers.  They  have  helped 
make  that  brilliant  Canadian  military  record 
of  which  all  Canadians  may  be  justly  proud. 

Many  of  these  Americans  can  be  found  on 
leave  in  London  and  I  met  several  of  them. 
One  night  while  I  was  walking  on  a  London 
street,  a  young  Canadian  lieutenant  stopped 
me  and  introduced  himself  as  coming  from 
Somerville,  Mass.  While  I  was  talking  to 
him  three  other  Canadian  soldiers  stopped,  be- 
cause of  my  uniform,  and  introduced  them- 
selves as  coming  respectively  from  Syracuse, 


116  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

New  York,  and  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

One  day  while  at  lunch  in  my  hotel,  another 
Canadian  soldier  introduced  himself  and  said 
that  he  was  from  Chicago.  He  told  the  story 
of  how  he  came  to  enlist.  He  was  engaged 
to  a  girl  of  German  extraction  in  Chicago,  but 
her  brother  for  some  reason  broke  up  the 
engagement.  When  war  came,  the  brother 
returned  to  Germany  and  became  an  officer  in 
the  Prussian  Guards.  When  the  American 
heard  of  this,  he  immediately  enlisted  in  the 
Canadian  Army,  in  the  fall  of  1914,  to  look 
for  that  brother.  His  battalion  has  met  the 
Prussian  Guards  many  times,  but  he  has  never 
been  able  to  locate  him.  He  seemed  to  have 
an  idea  that  if  he  could  find  and  kill  the 
brother,  all  obstacles  to  marrying  the  girl 
would  be  removed,  and  if  he  survives  the  war 
he  could  return  to  Chicago  and  claim  her. 

This  American  was  in  London  on  leave  and 
had  been  given  hopes  of  obtaining  a  commis- 
sion before  he  returned  to  the  front.  He  said 
that  he  was  a  scout  and  that  his  duties  were 
to  crawl  between  the  lines  in  "No  Man's 
Land"  and  sometimes  into  the  German 
trenches.  Previously  he  was  with  a  machine 
gun  squad  and  his  duty  was  to  run  ahead  of 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  117 

an  infantry  charge  firing  a  Lewis  machine 
gun.  He  carried  with  him  a  diary  of  his 
experiences  wrapped  in  an  American  flag,  and 
firmly  believed  that  if  the  Germans  ever  cap- 
tured him  and  read  his  diary,  they  would 
surely  kill  him.  He  also  said  that  ninety  per 
cent  of  his  battalion  were  Americans.  These 
men  were  only  a  few  but  they  could  be  met 
wherever  Canadian  soldiers  were  gathered  in 
any  numbers.  They  are  suffering  in  the  great 
cause,  for  hardly  a  day  passes  but  what  there 
are  published  the  names  of  several  American 
killed  and  wounded  from  among  those  whose 
desire  for  military  service  could  not  wait  the 
entry  of  this  country  into  the  war. 

I  hope  that  something  can  be  done  to  get 
these  men  into  the  American  Army.  Every 
one  of  them  that  I  met  said  that  he  was  home- 
sick for  our  army  now  that  we  are  in  the  war 
and  begged  me  to  do  everything  possible  to 
get  him  transferred.  If  Great  Britain  saw 
fit  to  transfer  these  men  in  a  body  to  the  Amer- 
ican Army  they  would  form  the  best  possible 
nucleus  for  our  own  newly  forming  regiments. 
If  some  American  statesman  wishes  to  earn 
the  undying  gratitude  of  thousands  of  his  fel- 
low citizens,  let  him  arrange  for  their  transfer 


118  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

to  the  army  of  their  own  country. 

I  met  another  Canadian,  this  time  really  a 
Canadian,  who  had  served  in  a  Louisiana 
regiment  during  our  war  with  Spain.  Later 
I  told  an  English  officer  of  this  incident  and 
remarked  that  as  Canada  had  helped  us  dur- 
ing our  war  with  Spain,  it  was  equally  fitting 
that  the  United  States  should  help  Canada  at 
this  time.  The  Englishman's  reply  was,  "Oh, 
I  dare  say  that  you  would  have  won  your 
war  with  Spain  without  Canadian  assistance." 
He  was  not  one  of  the  new  type  of  Englishmen 
developed  by  the  war. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

ON  THE  SOMME 

IT  IS  most  difficult  to  describe  a  battlefield 
so  that  another  person  who  has  not  seen  it  can 
visualize  it.  Imagine  a  country  where  the 
ground  has  been  churned  and  churned  until 
nothing  remains  except  churned  sub-soil,  top- 
soil  and  rubbish.  Imagine  nothing  left  but 
shell  holes,  smashed  dugouts  and  graves. 
Imagine  the  land  as  lands  were  ravaged  by 
Attila  the  Hun,  who  left  nothing  except  the 
earth  and  the  sky,  and  then  one  can  perhaps 
picture  the  condition  of  France  when  the 
Germans  have  done  their  work. 

Poor  France!  The  Somme  Valley  was  for- 
merly a  flourishing  agricultural  community 
with  populous  villages  and  towns,  and  now 
nothing  but  the  earth  and  sky  remain  except 
where  a  few  ruined  cellar  holes  show  the 
former  location  of  a  town  or  village  and  a  few 
charred  stumps  show  what  remains  of  a  mag- 
nificent forest. 

The  town  of  Albert  is  on  the  edge  of  the 


120  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

Somme  battlefield  where  the  hard  fighting  of 
1916  took  place.  Albert  was  not  in  the  Ger- 
man lines  at  that  time,  but  was  unfortunately 
subject  to  shell  fire  from  the  German  guns.  It 
was  abandoned  by  its  inhabitants  on  the 
approach  of  the  Germans.  Many  of  the  houses 
show  the  effect  of  the  bombardment,  and 
though  a  few  of  the  inhabitants  had  returned 
the  streets  and  houses  seemed  deserted  except 
for  the  British  soldiers.  All  except  the  few 
occupied  houses  were  open  to  the  elements  and 
many  of  them  in  ruins.  From  the  top  of  the 
steeple  of  the  Cathedral  still  hung  the  image 
of  the  Virgin,  since  shot  down,  stretched  out 
horizontally  and  showing  the  effect  of  the 
German  bombardment. 

The  road  from  Albert  to  Bapaume  passed 
through  the  scenes  of  some  of  the  hardest 
fighting  of  the  Somme  battle.  From  the  road 
could  be  seen  what  was  formerly  Ovillers, 
Pozieres,  Le  Sars,  Eaucourt-l'Abbaye ;  noth- 
ing but  rubbish  heaps.  All  along  the  road 
were  British  dugouts,  British  trenches,  British 
barbed-wire,  what  was  formerly  "No  Man's 
Land,"  German  barbed-wire,  German 
trenches,  German  dugouts  and  British  and 
German  graves.  A  few  hundred  yards  farther 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  121 

along  the  same  scene  is  repeated.  So  it  is  all 
along  this  terrible  battlefield  where  thousands 
of  British  lives  have  been  given  to  win  a  few 
hundred  yards  of  bare  ground.  I  counted 
nine  British  tanks  that  had  been  put  out  of 
action  and  the  other  debris  of  a  battlefield 
lay  in  every  direction.  The  British  were  try- 
ing to  save  as  many  of  the  objects  abandoned 
on  the  field  as  could  be  used  again.  This  work 
is  done  by  British  Indians  who  pile  the  mate- 
rial on  trains  operated  on  narrow  gauge  tracks 
by  American  engineers. 

When  the  Germans  retreated  from  the 
region  they  showed  their  diabolical  ingenuity 
to  accomplish  the  killing  of  men.  They  left 
in  the  abandoned  territory  many  houses,  and 
attractive  things,  little  things  scattered  about, 
souvenirs,  like  German  helmets  and  shining 
objects.  When  a  British  soldier  touched  the 
helmet  or  object,  he  would  be  blown  up  by  a 
bomb.  When  a  soldier  went  through  a  path, 
he  would  trip  over  a  wire  and  a  bomb  would 
explode.  When  a  man  entered  a  house  and 
stepped,  for  instance,  on  the  first  step  of  the 
stairs  to  the  second  story,  the  whole  house 
would  be  blown  up.  For  months  afterwards 
the  houses  were  blowing  up  by  means  of  time 


122  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

devices.  Soon  practically  no  whole  houses 
were  left.  In  the  town  of  Bapaume,  a  big 
chateau,  a  landmark  for  miles  around,  was 
left  intact.  I  never  could  find  out  how  the 
British  used  it,  but  I  rather  imagine  that  a 
headquarters  was  there.  One  day  someone 
moved  an  image  in  a  small  pagoda-like  out- 
house and  the  chateau  went  up  in  the  air  leav- 
ing only  a  big  hole  in  the  ground.  One  night 
I  dined  with  some  British  anti-aircraft  artil- 
lery officers  in  a  bomb-proof  shelter  near  this 
spot.  Next  the  shelter  was  the  pagoda  where 
the  image  had  been.  To  our  rear  was  the  hole 
where  the  chateau  had  been. 

One  night  while  dining  near  Peronne  in 
one  of  the  few  whole  houses  left  standing,  one 
of  the  officers  of  a  battery  stationed  near  that 
point  casually  remarked  during  dinner  that 
since  most  of  the  houses  in  the  neighborhood 
had  blown  up  there  was  really  no  telling  when 
the  house  in  which  we  were  dining  would  also 
go.  I  really  felt  relieved  when  I  got  out  of  it. 

Anything  that  is  likely  to  attract  attention 
and  which  will  blow  up  when  one  touches  it 
is  called  a  "booby  trap"  by  the  British.  Dur- 
ing the  following  up  of  the  German  retreat 
so  many  British  soldiers  were  injured  by  these 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  123 

traps  that  orders  were  issued  to  the  effect  that 
anyone  being  injured  by  one  of  them  would  be 
considered  as  having  received  a  self-inflicted 
wound.  This  order  somewhat  reduced  the 
number  of  casualties. 

I  spent  some  time  in  Arras,  which  had  been 
again  bombarded  by  the  Germans  two  days 
before  I  arrived.  The  town  had  been  aban- 
doned by  its  inhabitants  and  most  of  it  was  in 
ruins.  North  of  Arras  is  Vimy  Ridge,  where 
the  Canadians  gained  undying  fame.  On  the 
way  there  we  passed  more  leveled  towns  whose 
names  on  the  map  alone  showed  where  towns 
formerly  existed.  Everywhere  were  dugouts, 
trenches,  wire  entanglements  and  graves.  The 
Indians  had  not  yet  reached  that  point  in  their 
cleaning.  I  saw  everywhere  German  shell 
cases,  relics  of  when  the  Germans  held  the 
ground,  and  German  shrapnel  and  high  ex- 
plosive, British  unused  three  inch  shells,  Brit- 
ish fuse  caps,  British  bandoleers,  British  cart- 
ridges both  in  clips  and  loose  on  the  ground, 
and  other  things  of  similar  nature  which 
showed  the  later  occupancy  of  the  ground  by 
the  British.  The  German  graves  seemed  to 
be  as  carefully  looked  out  for  as  British 
graves.  A  wooden  cross  with  the  dead  man's 


124  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

name  and  regiment  marks  each  British  or 
German  grave,  though  some  of  the  latter  had 
elaborate  stones.  The  graves  were  grouped 
as  if,  after  an  advance,  the  bodies  from  that 
immediate  locality  had  been  gathered  and 
buried  near  where  the  men  were  killed.  Some 
distance  to  the  rear,  all  the  street  signs  were 
in  English.  Close  behind  the  trenches,  the 
signs  frequently  were  in  German. 

The  British  get  so  accustomed  to  condi- 
tions that  they  pay  no  attention  to  the  proxim- 
ity of  the  German  lines  when  using  the  roads 
in  the  rear.  One  day  while  at  Vimy  Ridge 
on  the  road  to  Lens,  which  town  was  in  pos- 
session of  the  Germans,  my  guide,  a  British 
Major,  pointed  out  to  me  where  the  German 
front  and  second  line  trenches  were,  and  also 
indicated  some  high  ground  to  the  rear  which 
he  stated  the  British  hoped  soon  to  possess. 
It  appeared  to  be  merely  a  desolate  waste 
upon  which  no  human  being  could  be  seen. 
I  did  a  lot  of  thinking  because  it  seemed  to  me 
that  if  we  could  see  the  location  of  the  Ger- 
man trenches  so  clearly  that  the  Germans 
surely  could  see  us.  Intermittent  firing  was 
going  on  at  the  time.  We  walked  to  the 
Major's  motor  and  went  along  a  road  parallel 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  125 

to  the  German  lines.  It  was  broad  daylight  and 
a  clear  day.  After  we  had  been  proceeding 
some  few  minutes,  I  asked  a  question.  "Can- 
not the  Germans  see  us?"  "Yes,"  he  replied. 
"Is  it  not  dangerous  going  along  like  this, 
within  plain  sight  of  the  Germans?"  I  asked 
further.  "No,  the  Germans  have  not  been 
shelling  automobiles  on  this  road  lately;  they 
will  not  turn  their  guns  on  us  unless  we  get 
stuck,"  he  answered.  "But  we  might  get 
stuck,"  I  suggested.  "That  might  not  make 
any  difference,"  he  replied,  "we  would  then 
have  two  chances :  in  the  first  place,  the  Ger- 
mans might  not  open  fire  after  all;  and,  in 
the  second  place,  they  might  not  hit  us  if  they 
did." 

All  along  the  front  excellent  roads  lead  up 
to  the  front  trenches.  When  the  Germans  are 
driven  back,  Indians,  British  workmen  and 
prisoners  continue  the  building  behind  the 
advancing  British  line.  Road  builders  are  a 
very  important  part  of  a  modern  army.  Back 
of  the  trenches  also  are  railroads.  Far  in  the 
rear  are  standard  guage  tracks  with  ordinary 
trains  which  run  to  the  danger  zone  where 
trains  run  on  narrow  guage  tracks.  These 
latter  tracks  can  be  built  to  the  trenches  them- 


126  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

selves  and  handcars  can  save  much  manual 
labor.  Railroad  men  are  also  a  very  impor- 
tant adjunct  to  the  modern  army,  and  it  is  in 
this  capacity  that  many  of  our  engineer  regi- 
ments are  doing  most  valuable  service  at  the 
front. 

Nearly  all  supplies  are  brought  up  at  night, 
and  as  a  result  the  Germans  put  a  barrage  on 
the  roads,  in  the  rear  of  the  British  trenches, 
to  prevent  supply  wagons  from  being 
advanced.  An  old  soldier  can  well  imagine  the 
excitement  when  a  barrage  lands  among  a 
convoy  of  mule  teams.  Even  such  a  "staid 
character"  as  an  army  mule  may  then  show 
signs  of  life. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
WITH  "BYNG  OF  CAMBRAI" 

IT  WAS  a  black  night  with  only  a  few  lonely 
looking  stars  hanging  low  above  the  tree-tops 
and  a  feeling  of  hushed  expectancy  filled  the 
damp  warm  summer  night.  It  was  the  eve- 
ning of  the  day  that  I  arrived  at  Albert  and  I 
had  been  invited  to  attend  an  entertainment 
being  given  near  Bapaume  by  the  Tommies 
of  a  departing  division  to  the  officers  of  the 
division  that  remained.  Overhead  was  the 
brooding  sky  of  the  lowlands.  Along  the  hor- 
izon, made  dusky  and  far  away  by  the  mists, 
an  occasional  star-shell  rose  up  like  a  sky- 
rocket and  lighted  for  a  moment  the  mutilated 
trees.  In  the  field  beyond  the  jagged  rem- 
nants of  a  little  village  was  a  bomb-proof 
shelter  in  the  ground  backed  up  to  a  pile  of 
earth  thrown  up  by  the  heavy  bombardment. 
As  we  drew  up  before  the  door  we  could  see 
tiny  cracks  of  light  around  the  entrance  and 
the  quiet  figures  of  British  sentinels  who,  with 
their  cumbersome  equipment  and  their  long 


128  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

habituation  to  the  life  of  the  trenches,  have 
come  to  seem  almost  part  of  the  soil  for  which 
they  are  so  bravely  fighting.  In  the  dark  mys- 
tical evening  they  rose  up  like  rocks  or  trees 
until  a  pleasant  English  voice  spoke  a  sharp 
challenge.  Within  the  shelter  there  was  for 
that  part  of  France  a  brilliant  scene.  The 
room  both  in  size  and  shape  resembled  a  hall. 
At  one  end  a  stage  had  been  erected  with  space 
provided  for  the  orchestra  and  camp  chairs 
had  been  set  in  rows,  eked  out  by  wooden 
benches  directly  to  the  rear.  In  the  front  row 
sat  Lieutenant-General  Sir  Julian  Byng  and 
his  Generals.  In  the  second  row  sat  nurses, 
and  back  of  them  all  the  officers  according  to 
rank.  To  the  very  rear  sat  the  lieutenants  and 
subalterns,  who  added  loud  and  cheerful 
applause  to  the  general  gaiety  of  the  occasion. 
The  orchestra  was  made  up  of  Tommies  and 
most  of  the  music  was  American  rag-time. 
Why  the  British  soldier  should  respond  with 
such  unfailing  delight  to  "I  want  to  go  back 
to  Michigan,"  is  a  question  for  psychologists 
to  solve.  I  don't  suppose  that  one  out  of  a 
hundred  of  the  men  who  march  to  battle 
shouting  the  tune  have  the  slightest  idea  where 
or  what  Michigan  is.  It  is  the  same  with 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  129 

many  other  typically  American  songs. 

The  show  was  excellent  as  all  the  per- 
formers were  professional  entertainers,  men 
who  had  made  a  living  before  the  war,  by 
doing  just  such  stunts  in  the  London  Music 
Halls.  And  from  moment  to  moment  at  irre- 
gular intervals  all  through  the  performance 
there  would  come  the  distant  boom  of  heavy 
artillery  and  the  nearer  crash  of  bursting 
shells.  We  were  well  within  range  of  the 
German  gun-fire  but  no  one  paid  the  slightest 
attention  and  the  entertainment  came  to  a  suc- 
cessful and  hilarious  conclusion.  As  we  filed 
out  into  the  summer  darkness  there  was  a 
crash  and  for  a  moment  the  night  was  lit  up 
like  noon-day  by  a  bursting  shell  and  as  a 
British  officer  and  I  motored  along  a  darkened 
road  parallel  to  the  German  lines  a  light  sud- 
denly flared  up  in  the  field  at  our  left  seem- 
ingly only  a  few  yards  away.  I  assumed  that 
we  had  been  heard  and  that  the  Germans  were 
firing  at  us,  but  my  companion  laughed  and 
remarked,  "That  is  just  a  flare  from  the  Ger- 
man trenches.  They  are  trying  to  light  up 
'No  Man's  Land,'  they  are  afraid  that  we 
may  raid  them." 

My   duties   led   me   to   the   inspection  of 


130  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

various  anti-aircraft  batteries  up  and  down  the 
British  lines  just  in  the  rear  of  the  infantry 
trenches.  I  visited  one  battery  that  had  been 
pushed  up  well  under  big  gun-fire  of  the  Ger- 
mans but  the  location  of  which  the  latter  had 
not  yet  discovered.  The  gun  was  concealed 
in  a  hollow  and  on  either  side  there  were  the 
dugouts  in  which  the  gun  crews  lived.  The 
men  seemed  fairly  comfortable  considering 
the  usual  Somme  fall  weather  conditions  and 
their  proximity  to  the  enemy.  After  having 
a  cup  of  tea  with  the  young  lieutenant  in  com- 
mand, in  his  dugout,  which  contained  a 
bureau,  table  and  bed,  captured  from  the  Ger- 
mans, I  began  to  retrace  my  steps.  It  was 
raining,  there  was  almost  a  foot  of  mud  and 
water  in  the  trenches  and  the  night  was  so 
dark  I  could  hardly  see  a  foot  in  front  of  my 
face.  As  I  started  off  in  the  darkness,  the 
lieutenant  casually  called  out,  "Oh!  By  the 
wayl  If  you  don't  take  the  first  road  to  the 
right,  you  will  be  in  the  German  lines  1"  I 
am  glad  to  say  that  my  companion  and  I 
located  and  took  the  first  road  to  the  right. 

The  British  throughout  the  Somme  had 
captured  the  ridges  and  commanding  places 
desired  by  them  preparatory  to  their  next 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  131 

drive.  Some  miles  to  the  rear  were  the  rest 
billets  where  the  troops  go  to  recuperate  after 
their  turn  of  duty  in  the  trenches.  By  these 
billets  were  fields  and  it  was  quite  a  usual 
sight  to  see  football  games  taking  place  with 
the  same  enthusiasm  that  surrounds  a  match 
at  home.  The  houses  of  the  men  were  made 
of  iron  and  looked  much  like  large  sewer 
pipes  except  that  they  were  flat  on  the  bottom. 
The  ingenuity  of  the  soldiers  can  make  them 
very  comfortable  and  everything  possible  was 
done  for  the  comfort  of  the  men.  The  worst 
of  the  front  is  the  monotony  and  to  overcome 
this,  public  entertainments  for  the  men  and 
officers  were  given  and  much  private  enter- 
taining, especially  among  the  officers.  The 
British  have  their  afternoon  tea  even  at  the 
front  and  I  can  well  imagine  a  British  Tommy 
sipping  his  tea  at  the  proper  time  while  an 
intense  bombardment  goes  on  overhead. 

In  England  and  at  the  British  front,  I 
learned  to  respect  the  British  officers  that  I 
met.  They  appeared  to  be  earnest  gentlemen 
who  were  giving  their  best  to  their  country. 
They  treated  us  with  all  the  thoughtful  kind- 
ness that  one  person  could  use  towards  another 
and  they  seemed  anxious  that  Great  Britain 


132  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

and  the  United  States  might  be  drawn  closer 
together.  Frequently  they  talked  of  America. 
One  night  several  officers  were  gathered  to- 
gether around  a  wooden  table  in  a  damp  and 
dim-lit  dugout  and  they  amused  themselves 
by  telling  the  place  in  the  United  States  they 
would  like  to  visit  were  they  able  to  go.  One 
selected  Atlantic  City;  another  selected  New- 
port; and  all  the  others  selected  Coney  Island. 
The  officers  that  one  meets  at  the  service 
schools  in  England,  particularly,  and  at  the 
front,  may  be  English,  or  Scotch,  or  Irish,  or 
Welsh,  or  Colonial,  but  they  are  going  at  their 
task  with  a  seriousness  and  steadfastness  of 
purpose  that  augurs  well  for  the  success  of 
the  allied  cause. 

The  interest  of  Americans  has  been  directed 
toward  the  Americans  stationed  with  General 
Byng's  army.  When  General  Byng  sur- 
prised the  Germans  and  everyone  else  by  al- 
most reaching  Cambrai  in  an  attack  led  by 
tanks  and  unheralded  by  gunfire,  it  was  the 
duty  of  the  American  engineers  to  build  tracks 
and  operate  trains  in  the  rear  of  his  advancing 
army.  In  the  Somme  valley  during  the  winter 
months,  the  mud  is  deep  and  the  best  of  roads 
are  almost  impassible.  Tracks  are  not  affected 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  133 

by  the  weather  and  are  useful  not  only  as  a 
means  of  bringing  up  ammunition  and  sup- 
plies but  also  for  the  heavier  guns  which  are 
brought  up  and  fired  from  rails. 

Britain  lacks  technical  men.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  under  the  vicious  volunteer 
system,  large  numbers  of  technical  men  en- 
listed as  privates  in  the  first  British  Army  and 
were  killed  in  France.  Today  Britain  feels 
the  loss  of  these  men  from  whose  education 
and  training  she  received  no  benefit.  America 
fortunately  has  been  able  largely  to  fill  the 
breach  by  supplying  both  Britain  and  France 
with  technical  men.  I  frequently  saw  these 
American  engineers  on  the  Somme.  Before 
the  advance  on  Cambrai  they  were  industri- 
ously aiding  in  moving  supplies  to  the  front 
and  cleaning  up  and  sorting  those  objects  left 
on  the  old  Somme  battlefield  of  1916  which 
might  be  of  further  use.  When  I  saw  them, 
they  wore  their  campaign  hats  and  though 
they  were  within  range  of  the  bigger  German 
guns,  none  of  them  that  I  saw,  wore  the  shrap- 
nel helmet.  The  only  ones  that  seemed  to 
have  rifles  were  sentries.  When  working  they 
appeared  to  be  unarmed  so  far  as  I  could  see. 

From  my  knowledge  of  the  Somme,  I  can 


134  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

well  imagine  what  happened  to  these  men 
when  the  Germans  repulsed  General  Byng's 
attacks  and  broke  through  in  their  turn.    The 
duty  of  the  engineers  was  to  have  roads  built 
and  tracks  laid  in  rear  of  the  advancing  army 
right  up  to  the  front  trenches  and  there  they 
were  when  the  Germans  succeeded  in  break- 
ing the  British  line  in  the  region  of  Gouzeau- 
court.    When  the  Germans  pushed  the  British 
aside  and  smashed  through  their  lines,  they 
came  upon  the  Americans  right  in  the  rear 
and  when  British  reinforcements  came  up  the 
Americans  were  naturally  caught  between  the 
forces  of  the  combatants.    Without  shrapnel 
helmets  or  rifles  they  are  said  to  have  escaped 
by  lying  in  shell  holes  while  the  British  fired 
over  them  and  there  they  remained  until  the 
advancing  British  were  near  enough  to  enable 
them  to  seize  whatever  weapons  were  avail- 
able and  join  their  ally.    Until  the  immediate 
danger  was  past,  these  engineers  served  in  the 
ranks  with  the  British  and  helped  withstand 
the  German  onslaughts.    All  of  this  was  not 
without  its  cost  for  many  of  them  fell  and 
added  their  lives  to  the  toll  of  the  dead  on  the 
battlefield  of  the  Somme. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

STORIES  FROM  THE  TRENCHES 

THE  HORRORS  of  war  have  their  funny  side 
if  one  can  forget  for  a  moment  their  grue- 
someness.  Many  wierd  incidents  relieve  the 
monotony  of  trench  life.  Once  in  the  Somme 
region  a  portion  of  the  front  trenches  was  held 
by  a  regiment  that  was  new  and  particu- 
larly ineffective  at  making  or  resisting  raids. 
Nearly  every  night  the  Germans  raided  its 
trenches  and  almost  nightly  many  of  its  men 
were  killed  by  the  German  raiders.  The  regi- 
ment was  a  failure  either  at  resistance  or  at 
retaliating  successfully.  Finally  the  general 
commanding  in  that  sector  determined  to 
make  a  change  and  he  placed  in  that  portion 
of  the  line  a  regiment  famous  for  its  raiding 
ability.  That  night  the  Germans  raided  as 
usual  but  the  new  regiment  was  prepared.. 
Next  morning  the  Germans  at  dawn  could  see 
from  their  lines  the  heads  of  their  late  com- 
rades placed  on  posts  along  the  outer  edge  of 
the  British  trench.  This  effectually  put  a 


136  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

stop  to  further  German  raiding  in  that  portion 
of  the  lines. 

Another  story  is  told  about  a  British  general 
who  was  only  27  years  of  age.  Originally  an 
officer  of  New  Zealand  troops,  General  C.  B. 
Freyberg  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque  char- 
acters that  this  war  has  developed.  Once 
when  the  warships  were  going  through  the 
Dardanelles,  he  volunteered  to  swim  ashore 
and  light  a  flare  to  guide  the  ship,  which  feat 
was  successfully  performed.  Later  at  the  Bat- 
tle of  the  Somme,  he  led  a  division  in  a  bril- 
liant charge  and  captured  Beaucourt  though 
four  times  wounded.  He  has  won  the  Victoria 
Cross  and  every  other  reward  for  bravery 
given  by  Great  Britain.  In  the  early  part  of 
the  war,  he  is  said  to  have  been  bandaging  the 
wounds  of  a  German  when  the  latter  shot  him. 
As  a  result  of  this  treachery  on  the  part  of  a 
man  he  was  befriending,  he  has  become  ex- 
tremely bitter  against  the  Germans  and  insists 
on  leading  in  person  all  charges  of  his  troop. 
Each  night  he  prowls  in  "No  Man's  Land" 
looking  for  a  chance  to  crawl  into  the  German 
trenches  and  capture  or  kill  Germans.  He 
has  been  wounded  seven  times  and  when  I 
was  in  England  was  again  in  a  hospital.  A 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  137 

Major  told  me  that  a  patrol  frequently  re- 
ported at  night,  "All  quiet  between  the  lines 
except  for  a  brigadier-general  prowling 
about." 

A  friend  of  mine  was  driving  an  ambulance 
over  a  rough  road  behind  the  lines.  He  had 
with  him  a  wounded  German  prisoner  and  a 
Turco.  The  night  was  dark,  the  road  was 
rough  and  my  friend  was  having  trouble  get- 
ting his  car  past  the  convoys  going  in  the  other 
direction.  He  felt  a  continuous  tapping  on 
his  shoulder,  but  at  first  paid  no  attention.  At 
last  in  exasperation  he  turned  around  and  saw 
the  wounded  Turco  cut  the  German's  throat. 
The  Turco  had  thought  that  the  driver  would 
enjoy  this  spectacle. 

Shell  shock  has  curious  effects.  Once,  I 
have  been  told,  a  man  lay  twenty-four  hours 
apparently  quite  dead  in  a  trench.  Suddenly 
a  shell  burst  within  a  few  feet  of  him.  The 
man  leaped  to  his  feet  shouting,  "This  is  too 
hot  for  me,"  and  rushed  to  the  rear.  Appar- 
ently the  shell,  bursting  so  near  to  him,  had 
reversed  the  effect  of  a  previous  shell  that  had 
seemingly  killed  him. 

There  is  another  story  of  a  man  whose  hip 
was  broken  so  that  he  could  not  move  from  a 


138  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

shell  hole  near  the  German  lines.  If  the  Ger- 
mans had  known  he  was  there,  they  could  eas- 
ily have  reached  him  and  killed  him.  While 
he  was  lying  in  the  shell  hole,  unable  to  move, 
a  British  soldier  found  him  and  stayed  with 
him  in  the  hope  of  eventually  getting  him 
back  to  the  British  lines.  Each  night  the  well 
soldier  sallied  forth  in  search  of  food  which 
he  obtained  by  raiding  the  neighboring  Ger- 
man trenches.  With  food  thus  obtained,  he 
sustained  the  wounded  soldier  and  himself. 
For  six  weeks  the  well  soldier,  who  at  any 
time  could  have  gone  to  his  own  lines  but 
could  not  have  returned  to  the  aid  of  the 
wounded  man,  raided  the  German  trenches 
and  kept  the  wounded  man  and  himself  alive. 
One  night  he  went  on  a  raid  as  usual  but  did 
not  return.  The  next  day  the  wounded  man, 
despairing  of  his  former  companion's  return, 
determined  to  try  to  make  his  way  back.  He 
was  making  the  best  progress  possible  when 
some  British  going  forward  found  him  and 
brought  him  to  their  lines.  The  wounded 
man  told  the  story  of  how  he  had  been  tended 
for  six  weeks  by  an  English  soldier  who  at 
the  constant  risk  of  his  own  life  stayed  with 
him  and  provisioned  them  both  by  raids  of 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  139 

the  German  trenches.  The  British  general  in 
command  of  the  troops  in  that  sector  did  not 
believe  the  soldier's  story  and  directed  that 
an  X-ray  photograph  be  taken  of  the  break  in 
the  soldier's  thigh.  When  the  photograph  was 
developed,  it  showed  a  six  weeks'  growth  and 
malformation,  which  it  was  not  possible  to 
break  anew.  The  wounded  man  was  perma- 
nently injured  but  his  life  had  been  saved. 
When  the  photograph  showed  that  the  man's 
story  was  true,  the  British  tried  to  find  the 
soldier  who  had  saved  the  wounded  man's 
life  so  that  he  might  be  awarded  the  Victoria 
Cross.  The  man  was  never  found. 

I  have  heard  it  said  that  this  war  has  been 
full  of  incidents  for  which  men  were  formerly 
awarded  the  Victoria  Cross,  but  which  are 
now  matters  of  everyday  occurrence.  The 
Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade  is  quite  sur- 
passed by  one  charge  north  of  Arras,  where 
the  British  massed  thousands  of  cavalry  for 
breaking  through  the  German  lines  to  follow 
up  the  charge  that  would  be  made  by  the 
infantry.  The  advance  was  ordered,  the 
infantry  charged  and  then  the  cavalry.  The 
hope  was  that  the  German  lines  could  be 
rolled  back  on  either  flank  by  pouring  through 


140  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

thousands  of  cavalry  past  the  infantry  at  that 
point.  The  cavalry  captured  much  ground, 
but  at  a  fearful  cost.  About  sixty  per  cent,  of 
the  men,  and  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  horses, 
were  put  out  of  action.  The  stench  from  the 
bodies  of  the  horses  could  be  smelled  in  that 
sector  for  months  afterwards. 

One  of  the  most  awful  stories  told  me  at  the 
British  front  bears  on  Germany's  treatment  of 
her  own  women.  Statements  have  been 
repeatedly  made  and  printed  in  the  papers  of 
the  United  States,  that  Germany,  realizing 
that  she  cannot  win  at  this  time  a  decisive  vic- 
tory, is  striving  for  an  inconclusive  peace  with 
the  purpose  of  preparing  for  another  war  in 
about  twenty  years.  By  that  time,  she  believes 
that  she  can  make,  with  her  spies,  all  nations 
except  France,  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States,  impotent  or  her  allies.  The  three 
countries  mentioned  will  have  lost  so  many 
men  in  this  war  that  the  ordinary  birth  rate 
will  not  replace  their  losses  by  that  time.  A 
British  officer  told  me  that  a  certificate  had 
been  captured  which  designated  a  certain  Ger- 
man soldier  to  act  as  the  official  husband  of  a 
portion  of  a  German  city,  with  a  provision  that 
if  he  finished  his  labors  in  that  portion  by  a 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  141 

certain  time,  he  should  continue  his  duties  in 
another  section.  Thus  the  normal  birthrate  of 
the  Teutonic  powers  will  be  raised  to  the 
point  where  Deutchland  Uber  Alles  will  be 
no  longer  a  dream.  The  Germans  are  a  prac- 
tical people. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  FRENCH  FRONT  ON  THE  AISNE 

ONE  OF  the  best  and  most  respected  and 
most  feared  Generals  in  all  France  is  the  com- 
mander of  the  10th  French  Army,  General 
Duchene.  He  has  the  reputation  of  being  the 
least  approachable  man  in  all  France,  a  brave 
and  silent  soldier.  It  was  to  General  Duchene 
that  our  commission  was  sent  in  order  to 
receive  permission  to  visit  the  French  front  on 
the  Aisne.  French  officers  whom  he  first  met 
looked  at  us  with  awe  and  pity  when  we  told 
them  where  we  were  going.  They  were  evi- 
dently sorry  for  any  officer,  and  especially  a 
stranger,  who  had  to  report  to  so  terrible  a 
personage.  The  French  officer  detailed  to 
accompany  us  was  almost  rigid  with  fright. 
But  luck  was  with  us  and  by  the  purest  acci- 
dent we  were  given  an  introduction  to  the 
General  unsurpassed  for  absurdity.  It  was 
the  most  ridiculous  accident  that  could  befall 
three  well-meaning  and  innocent  Americans 
in  the  presence  of  foreign  greatness. 


144  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

We  had  with  us  a  German  dog,  a  dachs- 
hund, captured  in  the  French  raid,  and  being 
cared  for  by  the  French  officer  as  a  pet.  The 
little  dog  liked  us  and  went  with  us  every- 
where. Although  we  had  not  intended  to  take 
him  to  call  on  the  General,  he  slipped  behind 
us  into  the  ante-room  where  we  were  waiting 
for  the  General  to  receive  us.  We  quieted  him 
down  and  put  him  out  of  sight.  We  waited 
'for  a  few  moments  in  apprehensive  silence  and 
then  the  great  doors  swung  open  and  we  came 
into  the  presence  of  the  man  of  ferocious  mem- 
ory. He  was  standing  against  the  mantel  and, 
as  we  approached  him,  he  returned  our  salute 
and  stared  at  us  with  his  penetrating  gaze. 
Just  at  that  moment  there  was  a  wild  rush  of 
little  feet, — the  General's  dog,  one  of  the 
things  he  loves  best  in  life,  had  spied  the  Ger- 
man dog  in  the  ante-room.  There  was  a  fusil- 
lade of  snaps  and  grows  and  a  battle  royal 
began  in  the  middle  of  the  General's  reception 
room.  Before  we  could  separate  them,  the 
French  dog  had  come  out  victorious,  and  as 
we  removed  our  mascot,  in  chagrin,  the  Gen- 
eral straightened  up  and  smiled  at  us.  We 
were  told  later,  many  times,  that  it  was  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  the  French  Army 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  145 

that  General  Duchene  had  smiled.  He  asked 
us  several  questions,  abruptly,  but  kindly.  He 
asked  me  how  long  I  had  been  in  military  ser- 
vice, and  I  answered  that  I  had  first  entered 
the  American  Army  at  the  time  of  the  war 
with  Spain.  To  forestall  the  possible  com- 
ment about  our  being  "ancient  and  honor- 
able," I  added  that  my  companion,  Captain 
Wilder,  was  an  engineer,  an  expert  on  time- 
fuses and  explosives.  Our  answers  seemed  to 
please  him.  When  we  described  the  infor- 
mation which  we  desired  to  obtain,  he  directed 
the  French  officer  with  us  to  introduce  us  to 
the  Chief  of  Artillery,  who  would  see  that 
everything  possible  was  done  for  us.  He  then 
shook  hands  with  us  most  politely  and  we 
departed.  For  weeks  afterwards,  we  kept 
meeting  French  officers  who  wanted  to  do 
their  best  to  smooth  down  the  impression  of 
fierceness  that  we  must  have  received  from 
General  Duchene.  We  never  told  them  about 
the  dogs. 

All  battlefields  nowadays  are  very  much 
alike.  The  typographical  distinction  of  the 
Chemin  des  Dames,  over  which  the  tide  of 
battle  had  poured  back  and  forth  so  furiously,, 
is  the  long  ridge  which  runs  down  the  center 


146  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

of  a  wide  and  fertile  plain.  The  Road  of  the 
Ladies  runs  along  this  ridge.  As  we  arrived 
at  the  French  front,  preparations  were  in 
progress  for  the  opening  of  the  great  offensive 
made  by  the  French  a  few  days  later.  The 
roads  on  the  French  side  of  the  ridge,  excel- 
lent military  roads  running  to  all  points  of 
importance  and  up  to  the  French  trenches, 
were  lined  with  curious  military  camions 
filled  with  the  Alpine  Chasseurs,  who  are  the 
shock  troops  of  the  French.  The  camions 
were  carefully  covered  so  that  the  Germans 
might  not  know  that  crack  regiments  were 
being  brought  up  against  them.  The  roads 
were  camouflaged  wherever  they  could  be 
seen  from  the  German  captive  balloons.  These 
balloons  are  stationed  over  the  trenches.  It  is 
difficult  to  reach  these  balloons  with  gun  fire 
because  they  are  far  to  the  rear,  but  it  is  a 
favorite  game  for  the  aviators  to  try  to  drop 
incendiary  bombs  on  the  enemy  balloon, 
bringing  it  crashing  to  the  ground.  The  aero- 
plane will  mount  high  in  the  air,  and  then 
diving  suddenly,  will  drop  a  bomb.  The 
observer  in  the  balloon  is  supplied  with  a 
parachute.  When  his  balloon  is  struck  he 
jumps  off  in  space  and  the  parachute  is  sup- 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  147 

posed   to   bring   him  safely  to   the   ground. 
Usually  it  does. 

As  we  drove  along  one  of  these  beautiful 
military  roads  we  passed  a  steady  tramp, 
tramp  of  French  soldiers  going  to  the  front. 
We  passed  enormous  loads  of  supplies  of  every 
kind  for  the  great  battle  which  soon  followed. 
Although  the  camouflage  made  by  strips  of 
sheeting  about  ten  feet  high  is  between 
the  roads  and  the  enemy,  the  Germans 
take  no  chances  of  missing  anything  im- 
portant, and  kept  up  a  steady  bombardment 
of  shrapnel.  As  we  drove  along,  there  was  a 
sudden  crash  and  a  shrapnel  shell  burst  high 
in  the  air  about  sixty  yards  to  our  right.  The 
French  captain  paid  no  attention  to  it.  I 
eyed  it  with  considerable  mistrust.  The  chauf- 
feur put  on  a  bit  more  speed.  That  was  all. 

That  night  I  spent  at  Battery  Headquar- 
ters in  a  building  which  appeared  to  be  an  Inn, 
where  a  make-shift  bed  had  been  arranged  for 
me  in  the  dining-room.  It  was  more  luxurious 
than  anything  I  had  expected  at  the  front.  I 
was  told  that  every  building  in  the  vicinity 
had  been  shelled  by  the  Germans  except  this 
one,  probably  because  some  trees  concealed  it 
from  the  German  balloons.  I  hoped  that  they 


148  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

would  not  discover  us  that  night.  There  was 
an  alarm  of  German  aeroplanes  in  the  night, 
but  I  was  too  tired  to  get  excited  and  went  to 
sleep  again.  The  next  morning  at  breakfast, 
I  learned  that  the  Germans  had  tried  to  gas  us 
in  the  night. 

The  arrangement  of  a  modern  battle  line  is 
fairly  clear  by  this  time  to  the  American  peo- 
ple, but  the  exact  position  of  the  anti-aircraft 
artillery  may  not  be  so  clearly  understood. 
The  extreme  front  facing  the  enemy  are  the 
infantry  trenches.  Directly  behind  these  are 
machine  guns,  which  not  only  protect  the 
infantry  from  attack  from  above,  but  force  the 
hostile  aeroplane  to  rise  high  enough  in  the 
air  to  be  within  reach  of  the  shells  of  the  anti- 
aircraft guns  in  the  rear.  The  machine  guns, 
therefore,  by  firing  at  hostile  aeroplanes,  force 
them  to  rise  to  such  a  height  that  the  bursts  of 
the  anti-aircraft  guns  can  take  effect. 

Many  of  these  anti-aircraft  guns  are  cleverly 
hidden  from  the  German  eyes.  I  visited  one 
anti-aircraft  gun  which  was  set  up  in  an 
elaborate  system  of  trenches  and  dugouts.  I 
remarked  upon  the  excellence  and  care  with 
which  the  trenches  had  been  devised.  "Yes," 
said  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  batteries,  "the 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  149 

trenches  are  good,  but  we  did  not  build  them; 
they  were  built  for  a  field  battery  which  was 
here  for  some  time  until  the  Germans  got  the 
exact  range  and  put  it  out  of  existence.  The 
Germans,  having  the  exact  range,  do  not 
believe  that  anyone  would  be  crazy  enough  to 
come  back,  but  here  we  are." 

On  the  sides  of  the  trenches  were  dugouts 
which  inside  appeared  to  be  veritable  houses. 
Other  dugouts  were  dressing  stations  and  store 
rooms.  In  other  dugouts,  where  soldiers 
lived,  there  were  sometimes  amusing  names  on 
signs  over  the  doors.  On  a  muddy  road  com- 
ing from  the  direction  of  the  infantry  trenches, 
I  saw  an  American  Ambulance  driven  by  an 
American  Ambulance  Service  man.  No  one 
seemed  to  pay  any  attention  to  men  slightly 
wounded.  I  saw  one  man  sitting  on  the  road- 
side, with  his  head  in  his  hands  and  a  small 
pool  of  blood  on  the  ground  in  front  of  him. 
He  was  probably  on  his  way  to  a  dressing 
station  in  the  rear. 

We  crossed  a  bridge  which  was  covered 
with  little  black  pieces  of  high  explosive 
shells,  showing  how  the  Germans  had  tried  to 
kill  persons  on  their  way  across.  Bushels  of 
such  souvenirs  could  have  been  swept  up  on 


150  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

the  bridge.  We  passed  a  farm  completely  in 
ruins,  and  I  picked  up  a  large  piece  of  an 
eight-inch  shell  that  had  perhaps  aided  in 
doing  the  damage.  There  were  many  graves 
at  this  place.  Proceeding  further,  I  saw  some 
objects  on  the  ground  and  asked  what  they 
were.  We  were  told  not  to  touch  them  as  they 
were  hand  grenades  that  had  not  exploded  and 
which  might  explode  if  touched.  Everywhere 
on  the  ground  about,  were  fragments  from 
German  shells  of  all  sizes,  and  other  odds  and 
ends  of  a  battlefield.  From  our  left  we  could 
hear  the  noise  caused  by  the  firing  of  a  French 
ten-inch  gun  above  the  other  noises  of  the  bat- 
tlefield. These  big  guns  are  pushed  into  posi- 
tion on  the  battlefield  by  engines  on  tracks, 
and  the  guns  are  fired  from  the  tracks.  One 
amusing  sight  was  that  of  a  locomotive  pulling 
a  heavy  train  of  cars  and  advancing  down  an 
ordinary  wagon  road.  At  first  we  could  not 
make  out  the  cause  of  the  apparent  miracle, 
but  as  we  looked  more  closely  we  saw  a  squad 
of  soldiers  rushing  back  and  forth  in  front  of 
the  train  and  laying  down  rails  for  it  to  run 
upon.  This  war  has  many  strange  sights. 

We  went  beyond  the  line  of  anti-aircraft 
batteries,  beyond  where  two  days  before,  a 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  151 

- 

mobile  battery  had  been  demolished,  to  a  point 
just  back  of  where  the  machine  gun  trenches 
were  situated.  Overhead  the  German  shells 
were  bursting,  while  around  us  were  great 
shell  holes  where  some  had  landed.  The  loca- 
tion of  the  German  trenches  could  be  plainly 
seen,  as  well  as  the  soldiers  in  the  French  first 
line  infantry  trenches.  We  could  hear  the 
rattle  of  the  German  machine  guns.  The  Ger- 
man big  guns  were  firing  far  over  our  heads  at 
the  French  field  batteries  to  the  rear,  and  the 
French  returned  the  fire  over  our  heads  at  the 
German  batteries.  Frequently,  the  Germans 
dropped  large  shells,  called  "Big  Berthas," 
after  the  lady  proprietor  of  the  Krupp  works, 
which  made  a  black  explosion  about  sixty  feet 
high  and  about  thirty  feet  across.  Near  where 
I  was  standing,  the  Germans  began  to  fire 
shrapnel,  and  one  exploded  about  thirty  yards 
away.  I  heard  the  bang  and  the  succeeding 
whizzing  as  the  shrapnel  balls  went  past.  Any 
shrapnel  which  can  be  heard  is  apt  to  be  all 
right.  When  one  bursts  close  to  a  person  and 
he  does  not  hear  the  balls  go  whizzing  past, 
that's  the  one  for  his  friends  to  fear. 

At  night,  the  firing  still  continues,  but  at 
irregular  intervals.    Both  combatants,  at  dusk 


152  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

and  at  night,  shell  all  roads  leading  to  the 
infantry  trenches  to  prevent  the  bringing  up  of 
food  and  ammunition  and  other  supplies  for 
the  men  in  the  trenches.  At  frequent  intervals 
during  the  night,  both  sides  send  up  lights. 
The  French  flares  only  light  up  for  an 
instant.  The  German  flares  light  for  some 
time.  Rockets  go  up  at  intervals.  The  whole 
scene  would  be  a  wonderful  pyrotechnic  dis- 
play if  it  did  not  signify  the  slaughter  of  men. 


CHAPTER  XX 

FIGHTING  AT  CHEMIN-DES-DAMES 

So  MUCH  has  been  said  and  written  about 
the  tragic  side  of  war  that  those  at  home  are 
apt  to  forget  at  times  that  there  is  no  game  in 
the  world  as  thrilling  as  war.  It  is  sport  car- 
ried to  the  nth  power.  It  is  a  game  played  by 
enormous  numbers  with  all  the  resources  of 
the  nation  to  call  upon,  and  with  life  or  death 
the  stakes.  It  is  natural  for  those  who  come 
to  look  on  at  the  war  to  write  out  its  sad  results, 
but  one  might  as  well  try  to  give  an  adequate 
description  of  a  dinner  party  by  telling  about 
the  dish-washing  as  to  give  an  impression  of 
war  by  describing  the  suffering  and  desolation 
which  follow  in  its  wake.  To  one  who  has 
had  any  experience  of  this  great  game  of  war, 
everything  else  in  life  thereafter  seems  a  little 
dull. 

And  of  all  the  varied  phases  of  modern  war- 
fare, none  has  this  element  of  sport  more 
strongly  marked  than  aircraft  and  anti-air- 
craft combat.  When  I  was  at  the  French 


154  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

front,  they  were  preparing  for  the  infantry 
thrust  by  General  Le  Mestre  towards  Laon, 
which  later  brought  them  about  eleven  thou- 
sand prisoners  and  one  hundred  and  sixty  guns. 
Down  long  white  poplar  bordered  roads,  com- 
pany after  company  of  French  troops  were 
marching,  stoically  and  in  silence.  There  was 
a  sort  of  pathetic  patience  about  the  way  in 
which  they  carried  the  heavy  burden  of  the 
war,  and  yet  nothing  could  have  been  less 
pathetic  than  their  heroism,  when  a  few  days 
later,  they  actually  went  over  the  top. 

The  sky  was  full  of  French  aeroplanes, 
observing  and  photographing  the  German 
lines  and  getting  ready  for  the  infantry  attack 
that  was  about  to  take  place.  Unusual  hostile 
aerial  activity  indicates  one  of  three  things,  an 
impending  attack  by  the  enemy,  the  relieving 
by  the  enemy  of  the  arm  holding  the  opposite 
lines,  or  a  fear  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  that 
you  are  about  to  attack.  If  no  occasion  has 
been  given  for  the  third  situation,  one  of  the 
other  two  will  probably  take  place.  If  the 
hostile  aerial  activity  is  excessive,  it  is  a  sign 
of  an  impending  attack  by  the  enemy,  gen- 
erally in  about  three  days. 

The  Germans  use  high  explosives  which 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  155 

produce  black  smoke,  and  the  French  use 
shrapnel  which  produce  white  smoke.  As 
the  French  planes  circled  above  the  German 
trenches,  the  air  was  filled  with  puffs  of  black 
smoke.  Suddenly,  a  German  aeroplane 
would  dart  over  the  French  trenches,  and  the 
French  anti-aircraft  guns  would  speak  in  their 
turn.  It  is  only  seldom  that  a  plane  is  actually 
struck  by  a  shell  from  the  anti-aircraft  guns. 
The  enemy  is  more  apt  to  be  frightened  back 
to  his  own  lines. 

Each  clear  day  this  wonderful  panorama  in 
the  air  was  repeated.  Once  I  saw  a  German 
aeroplane  fly  near  one  of  the  French  batteries 
with  which  I  had  been.  It  fired  two  shots  and 
the  aeroplane  just  managed  to  drop,  appar- 
ently disabled,  into  the  German  lines. 
Because  the  aeroplane  reached  its  own  lines, 
these  shots,  which  were  right  on  top  of  the 
target,  were  called  misses.  Early  one  morning, 
two  German  aeroplanes  tried  to  attack  one  of 
the  French  observation  balloons.  A  French 
battery  nearby  placed  a  barrage  between  the 
aeroplane  and  the  point  above  the  balloon. 
The  bombing  aeroplane  turned  and  gave  up 
the  attempt,  followed  by  the  other  plane.  This 
was  extremely  good  shooting,  but  unfor- 


156  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

tunately,  the  position  of  the  French  gun  was 
now  known.  Soon  after  the  German  aero- 
plane had  returned,  shrapnel  began  to  burst 
over  the  French  anti-aircraft  gun  that  had 
done  the  shooting.  The  crew  at  once  called  up 
their  own  batteries,  which  concentrated  on  the 
German  gun  and  effectually  stopped  its  fire. 
The  next  day  the  French  changed  the  position 
of  their  anti-aircraft  battery. 

The  French  are  extremely  clever  at  anti- 
aircraft artillery,  and  the  German  is  not 
nearly  so  good.  I  have  often  noticed  black 
puffs  and  looked  in  vain  for  the  French  aero- 
plane, only  to  find  that  it  was  a  mile  or  so  in 
another  direction;  but  when  white  puffs 
appeared  against  the  blue  the  German  plane 
was  never  very  far  away.  This  is  good  shoot- 
ing, because  it  is  considered  a  record  to  bring 
down  one  enemy  plane  for  every  six  thousand 
shots. 

The  Germans  were  constantly  bombing  the 
French  towns  in  rear  of  the  French  front.  At 
Fimes,  back  of  the  then  Aisne  battlefield,  I  saw 
three  private  houses  in  the  main  part  of  the 
town,  that  had  been  entirely  demolished.  This 
was  the  work  of  two  bombs  on  one  night,  and 
a  third  bomb  about  two  weeks  later.  The 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  157 

smaller  towns  of  France,  near  the  front,  had 
a  hard  time  when  attacked  by  aircraft  It  was 
impossible  to  give  every  town  an  adequate  air- 
craft defence  because  the  anti-aircraft  guns 
were  needed  at  the  front  and  in  the  defence  of 
Paris  and  at  other  important  points.  As  a 
result  of  this  scarcity  of  guns,  the  people  of 
the  smaller  towns  were  often  forced  to  submit 
to  bombing  without  being  able  to  fight  back  at 
the  raiders.  Germany  did  not  neglect  these 
opportunities  of  killing  helpless  old  men, 
women  and  children,  and  so  the  number  of 
dead  non-combatants  is  quite  large. 

The  French,  however,  are  employing 
against  the  Germans  the  one  means  which 
seems  to  be  effective  in  lessening  to  some 
degrees,  German  cruelties,  and  that  is  retalia- 
tion. For  some  time,  the  French  have  sent 
their  aeroplanes  over  Germany,  and  when  a 
French  town  has  been  bombed,  a  German 
town  suffers  also.  This  has  decreased  the  num- 
ber of  German  attacks  considerably.  It  is  only 
lately  that  the  British  have  employed  retalia- 
tion. 

When  the  Germans  first  raided  England, 
many  people  clamored  for  revenge,  but  the  old 
element  said,  "Britons  will  never  bomb  Gcr- 


158  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

man  cities  with  their  civilian  populations,  no 
matter  how  much  British  cities  may  be 
bombed."  These  English  took  upon  them- 
selves a  sort  of  superior  air  of  righteousness. 
Other  English  said,  "Let  us  bring  home  to  the 
Germans,  themselves,  the  horrors  of  what  they 
are  doing  and  perhaps  they  will  stop."  The 
first  party  kept  England  from  revenging  their 
cruelties  in  kind  during  all  the  first  years  of 
the  war.  While  I  was  in  London,  whenever 
the  German  aeroplanes  bombed  London  or 
other  parts  of  England,  the  British  aeroplanes 
responded  by  going  over  and  bombing  some 
fortified  city  in  German  Belgium.  Poor  Bel- 
gium, it  did  seem  to  many  people  that  she  had 
suffered  enough  without  being  bombed  by  the 
British  because  of  German  raids  while  the 
German  cities  went  free.  Finally,  public 
opinion  became  so  strong  in  favor  of  retalia- 
tion, that  Lloyd  George  promised  that  it 
would  take  place,  and  Britain  has  just  begun 
effectively  to  show  the  Germans  what  their 
own  methods  are  like. 

The  civilian  population  suffers  most  from 
these  air  raids,  because  the  infantry  canton- 
ments back  of  all  the  front  line  trenches  are 
carefully  protected  with  anti-aircraft  guns  and 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  159 

the  Germans  are  afraid  to  attack  them  too 
often.  But  it  is  impossible  to  protect,  ade- 
quately, every  village  in  France,  and  the  Ger- 
mans thus  prefer  to  bomb  the  little  home 
villages,  and  it  is  the  old  men,  women 
and  children  who  are  forced  to  take  the 
consequences. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE  CAPTAIN  IS  GASSED 

WHILE  I  was  making  the  observations, 
described  in  the  previous  chapter,  along  the 
Aisne  front,  Captain  Wilder,  in  pursuance  of 
his  duty,  had  joined  the  French  officers  in  the 
anti-aircraft  dugouts  behind  the  first  line 
trenches.  It  was  there  that  the  only  serious 
accident  befell  our  party. 

The  anti-aircraft  dugouts  are  built  behind 
the  infantry  trenches  in  the  position  that  best 
affords  opportunity  for  firing  upon  the  enemy 
planes.  The  actual  artillery  positions  are 
moved  from  day  to  day.  Positions  are  pre- 
pared in  advance,  and  every  day,  after  firing 
a  certain  number  of  shots,  the  battery  is  shifted 
to  one  of  these  new  positions.  So  carefully 
have  they  been  arranged,  that  firing  is  com- 
menced within  five  minutes  of  arrival.  The 
living  quarters  of  the  officers  are  some  little 
distance  from  the  guns.  The  dugout  in  which 
the  Captain  and  his  two  companies  were 
quartered,  lay  behind  a  small  rise  of  ground, 


162  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

sheltered  by  clumps  of  trees.  It  was  a  simple, 
bare  room,  almost  entirely  underground, 
shored  up  with  rough  planks  and  re-enforced 
by  sandbags  to  protect  the  men  within  from 
bursting  shrapnel.  The  furniture  was  made  of 
rough  boards  and  bits  of  packing  cases,  much 
like  a  rough  camp  in  the  lumber  district  in 
our  own  far  West. 

It  is  amusing  to  see  the  way  in  which  man 
adapts  himself  to  the  most  extraordinary  con- 
ditions. The  French  officers  had  been  living 
in  this  dugout  for  some  time,  and  there  were 
all  manner  of  devices  whereby  the  little 
uncomfortable  temporary  room  was  made  into 
a  habitable  dwelling.  No  nation  in  the  world 
knows  less  than  the  French  about  the  sort  of 
thing  that  we  call  camping,  and  yet  here  were 
these  two  Frenchmen  from  the  city,  adapting 
themselves  with  enthusiasm  to  just  the  sort  of 
thing  that  delights  the  heart  of  American  boy- 
hood. Neat  shelves  had  been  built  along  the 
walls.  Strings  had  been  arranged  so  that  the 
doors  and  windows  could  be  opened  and  closed 
by  the  officers  without  getting  out  of  bed.  The 
beds  were  rough  pine  bunks,  built  against  the 
wall.  And  most  amusing  of  all,  the  sheets 
were  made  in  the  form  of  bags,  as  a  protection 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  163 

against  the  ever-present  coofy.  If  one  of  these 
unwelcome  visitors  was  discovered  during  the 
night,  all  that  was  necessary  was  to  get  up, 
turn  the  sheets  inside  out,  and  crawl  in  again. 
The  bag-shaped  arrangement  was  a  protection 
against  any  further  annoyance. 

If  there  is  one  thing  that  the  French  do  well, 
it  is  to  maintain  the  amenities  of  life  against 
adverse  circumstances.  The  meals  were  served 
in  this  rough  and  make-shift  dwelling  with  as 
much  care  and  precision  as  though  the  pine 
table  was  in  the  dining-room  of  some  villa  of 
Southern  France,  and  the  tin  dishes  were  the 
silver  service  of  a  gentleman.  The  orderlies 
brought  in  the  meals  and  served  them  to  the 
officers.  Every  day  for  dinner  there  were 
hors  d'ceuvres,  soup,  meat  and  vegetables, 
usually  a  salad,  and  some  kind  of  dessert.  The 
French  officers  assured  the  Captain  that  this 
had  been  their  fare  ever  since  the  outbreak  of 
the  war,  and  that  they  had  almost  never  missed 
a  meal.  Like  all  discomforts,  the  inconveni- 
ences of  war  seem  worse  at  a  distance  than  they 
do  upon  the  spot.  The  only  indication  that 
the  dugout  was  within  range  of  the  German 
guns  was  the  fact  that  when  the  dinner  was 
brought  forward  from  the  kitchen  in  the  rear, 


164  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

two  men  always  carried  it.  Instead  of  one  man 
carrying  all  the  soup  and  all  the  meat,  while 
the  other  carried  all  the  vegetables  and  all  the 
dessert,  the  food  was  so  divided  that  each  man 
was  carrying  with  him  a  complete  dinner,  so 
that  if  one  man  was  struck  by  a  shell  on  the 
way,  the  officers  need  not  go  hungry. 

It  was  a  pleasant  summer  night,  and  Cap- 
tain Wilder  and  his  two  companions  had  gone 
to  sleep.  It  had  been  a  quiet  day  and  the  Ger- 
mans seemed  to  be  resting  up  for  some  attack. 
The  door  of  the  little  dugout  was  open  to  let 
in  the  summer-scented  air,  and  peace  seemed 
to  reign  over  the  countryside.  Only  an  occa- 
sional distant  booming  sound  indicated  the 
presence  of  the  enemy.  In  the  small  hours  of 
the  early  morning,  when  sleep  is  deepest,  an 
orderly  appeared  in  the  doorway  and  rousing 
the  officers,  announced  the  presence  of  gas.  It 
was  customary  when  a  gas  attack  was  impend- 
ing to  close  all  doors  and  windows  of  the  dug- 
out, and  to  sprinkle  water  over  the  muslin 
window  coverings,  which  .take  the  place  of 
panes  of  glass.  The  gas  commonly  in  use  at 
that  time,  at  the  front,  had  an  affinity  for 
water,  and  if  the  muslin  window  curtains  were 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  165 

thoroughly  soaked,  the  gas  did  not  penetrate 
them. 

The  French  officers,  having  instructed  the 
orderly  to  proceed  accordingly,  lay  down  and 
went  to  sleep  again.  But  accidents  will  hap- 
pen in  the  best  regulated  armies,  and  the 
orderly  did  not  latch  the  door.  A  few  minutes 
later,  Captain  Wilder,  who  had  been  asleep 
during  all  the  excitement,  was  awakened  by 
a  heavy  odor  of  gas.  He  found  the  two  French 
officers  with  the  tears  streaming  down  their 
faces,  stumbling  about  the  dugout  setting  out 
pans  of  water  as  best  they  could.  Fortunately, 
the  gas  had  come  from  some  little  distance,  and 
had  been  so  weakened  that  after  a  brief  treat- 
ment, all  three  men  were  able  to  resume  their 
duties.  But  it  was  some  weeks  before  the  Cap- 
tain fully  regained  the  use  of  his  voice,  and 
many  months  before  attacks  of  the  poisoning 
had  ceased  to  recur. 

Of  all  the  weapons  of  modern  warfare, 
poison  gas  seems  to  be  the  crudest  and  the 
most  infuriating.  The  modern  soldier  can 
respect  an  opponent  who  meets  him  with  bul- 
lets or  with  cold  steel,  but  the  poison  gas  that 
creeps  up  in  the  night,  suffocating  and  poison- 
ing him,  seems  to  any  brave  man  like  a 


166  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

dastardly  and  barbarous  weapon.  The  fact 
that  the  allied  armies  have  been  forced  to 
adopt  poison  gas  in  sheer  self-defence,  does  not 
mitigate  the  anger  and  horror  of  the  French 
and  English  soldiers  against  the  nation  which 
invented  such  a  weapon. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

WHAT  FRANCE  THINKS 

Two  QUESTIONS  have  been  asked  me  more 
than  any  others  since  I  have  returned  from  the 
war  zone.  One  of  them  is,  "Is  it  true  that 
France  is  exhausted?";  and  the  other,  "What 
do  the  French  think  about  the  outcome  of  the 
war."  There  is  but  one  answer  to  both.  France 
is  not  exhausted;  and  France  will  fight  to  a 
victorious  conclusion  if  it  takes  her  last  man, 
her  last  pound  of  food,  and  her  last  franc.  But 
France  is  undoubtedly  tired.  For  the  first  two 
years  of  the  war  she  did  far  more  than  her 
share,  owing  to  the  almost  completely  unpre- 
pared condition  of  Great  Britain.  With  insuf- 
ficient guns,  ammunition,  food,  clothing, 
organization,  trained  men  and  everything  else 
that  makes  an  efficient  army,  France,  like 
Britain,  was  obliged  to  undergo  huge  unnec- 
essary losses  because  her  men  were  not  fight- 
ing with  the  advantages  possessed  by  their 
opponents.  It  has  been  said  that  Great  Britain 
could  have  saved  the  lives  of  200,000  of  her 


168  WAR  TIME  GRANGE 

N 

men,  now  dead,  by  having  been  adequately 
prepared.  How  many  more  lives  of  French 
soldiers  might  have  been  saved,  considering 
that  the  French  were  obliged  to  defend  a  front 
originally  nearly  six  times  that  of  the  British? 

While  France  sustained  the  main  burden  of 
keeping  back  the  enemy,  the  British  gained 
the  necessary  time  to  prepare  and  perfect  that 
wonderful  organization  that  has  equalled,  and 
is  surpassing,  that  of  the  Germans ;  but  France 
is  tired.  She  is  like  the  relay  runner  who,  hav- 
ing run  another  man's  relay  besides  his  own, 
needs  a  rest  before  he  runs  again.  Give  France 
a  little  chance  to  rest  and  she  will  come  back 
stronger  than  ever. 

And  it  is  we  who  are  giving  the  French  the 
necessary  help.  With  our  wealth,  with  our 
enormous  population,  with  our  skill  in  organi- 
zation and  in  invention,  and  with  the  glorious 
and  prompt  response  which  we  have  made  to 
France's  cry  for  help,  there  is  no  longer  any 
doubt  whatever,  either  as  to  the  outcome  of  the 
war  or  as  to  the  encouragement  and  moral 
support  which  we  have  given  France.  Never- 
theless, we  must  not  be  too  optimistic.  Often  I 
have  heard  Americans  speak  to  the  French 
about  events  which  will  happen  "when  we 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  169 

invade  Germany."  And  the  answer  is  always 
the  same,  "It  will  be  very  difficult."  When  a 
Frenchman  says  that,  he  has  much  the  same 
look  of  wistful  sadness  as  when  he  uses  the 
phrase  "After  the  war."  The  French  have 
fought  so  long  and  so  gallantly,  they  have 
worked  so  hard  and  suffered  so  much,  that  the 
longing  for  peace  with  victory  seems  to  them 
almost  like  something  which  has  been  prom- 
ised them  in  another  life. 

The  French  are  filled  with  enthusiasm  over 
the  splendid  progress  that  we  have  made,  and 
their  expectations  are  without  limit.  One 
rather  amusing  aspect  of  this  intense  faith  in 
our  power  is  their  firm  belief  that  we  are  the 
most  inventive  people  in  the  world. 

I  was  constantly  asked,  "Que  fait  Monsieur 
Edison?"  The  French  would  not  be  aston- 
ished in  the  slightest  if  the  inventors  of  the 
United  States  developed  a  new  means  of  war- 
fare that  would  revolutionize  all  present 
methods.  In  fact,  they  rather  expect  that 
something  of  the  sort  will  take  place.  In  their 
minds,  they  do  not  consider  at  all  improbable 
that  the  country  that  produced  the  telegraph, 
the  telephone,  the  aeroplane,  the  submarine, 
and  nearly  every  other  invention  of  impor- 


170  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

tance,  will  now,  when  put  to  a  test  for  its  nat- 
ional existence,  produce  something  of  even 
greater  moment.  Sometimes  I  wondered  if 
the  French  were  already  not  a  bit  disap- 
pointed that  we,  to  date,  had  done  nothing 
startling. 

It  had  been  my  good  fortune  to  be  present 
as  one  of  the  officers  of  the  guard  of  honor 
when  the  first  French  mission  was  received  by 
the  Mayor  of  New  York,  at  the  New  York 
City  Hall,  and  I  heard  Viviani's  stirring 
address  on  that  occasion,  and  saw  "Papa 
Joffre,"  when  called  upon  for  a  speech,  throw 
a  kiss  to  the  cheering  crowd  assembled  in  the 
Aldermanic  Chamber.  It  was  equally  my 
good  fortune  to  be  present,  as  a  member  of  the 
Mayor's  Reception  Committee,  at  the  banquet 
given  to  the  members  of  the  French  and  Brit- 
ish Missions  at  the  Waldorf-Astoria. 

I  frequently  told  French  officers  about  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  crowds  when  the  French 
Mission  was  in  New  York  City,  and  they  were 
always  interested.  A  French  officer  told  me 
that  Joffre,  impressed  by  the  obviously  sincere 
welcome  and  intense  enthusiasm  of  the  cheer- 
ing crowds  surrounding  him,  turned  and  said 
to  a  French  officer  near  him,  "If  these  people 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  171 

mean  what  they  say,  I  do  not  need  to  take  the 
time  to  ask  their  government  for  their  services. 
I  can  get  them  right  now  to  fight  to  a  finish 
against  the  Germans."  Joffre  and  Viviani 
were  impressed  by  the  sincerity  of  their  wel- 
come and  the  good  feeling  that  they  have 
spread  throughout  France  will  endure. 

France  has  suffered  terribly.  With  much  of 
her  country  obliterated  and  the  inhabitants 
taken  into  slavery,  with  her  sons  killed  and  the 
murderers  still  on  French  soil,  she  fights 
bravely  on,  unmindful  of  her  wounds,  and 
without  any  other  idea  as  to  the  outcome  of 
this  war  except  a  victory  for  France  and  the 
ending  forever  of  the  frightful  Prussian 
menace  that  has  for  years  threatened  her  nat- 
ional existence.  She  is  determined  to  have 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  for  they  were  French. 
Some  well-meaning  Americans  have  suggested 
that  a  vote  be  taken  among  the  population  of 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  to  determine  whether 
they  should  be  a  part  of  France  or  Germany. 
Such  a  test  would  be  unfair.  Throughout 
France,  I  met  men  whose  families  had  refused 
to  stay  in  either  Alsace  or  Lorraine  under  Ger- 
man rule,  and  who  gave  up  their  homes  in 
order  to  continue  to  live  under  the  French 


172  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

flag.  Germany  has  done  everything  possible 
to  drive  away  the  French  and  to  cause  Ger- 
mans to  settle  in  their  places.  There  is  no 
question  how  the  real  Alsace  and  Lorraine 
population  would  vote,  thousands  of  whom  no 
longer  live  in  their  old  homes.  Their  desire  is 
to  be  French.  The  new  population  introduced 
by  Germany,  of  course,  wishes  to  remain  under 
the  government  that  has  awarded  them  some 
other  man's  land.  The  population  of  Alsace 
and  Lorraine  might  vote  to  be  French,  not- 
withstanding all  attempts  to  Germanize  the 
people,  but  the  vote,  to  be  a  real  test,  should 
include  the  exiles  living  in  France.  Many  of 
these  exiles  are  serving  in  the  French  Army  at 
the  risk  of  being  instantly  tried  and  shot  as 
traitors  by  the  Germans,  if  captured.  One 
thing  is  sure:  France  intends  to  have  back 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  and  is  ready  to  fight  for 
them  to  the  death. 

It  was  a  dark  night  after  a  heavy  battle  when 
the  first  American  troops  began  to  approach 
the  front  trenches.  A  friend  of  mine  told  me 
that  as  he  marched  his  men  down  a  road  on 
their  way  to  their  positions  in  the  front  line, 
they  passed  column  after  column  of  tired  and 
decimated  French  troops  lined  up  by  the  way- 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  173 

side  to  let  them  pass.  The  column  was  so  near 
the  German  lines  that  no  one  spoke  above  a 
whisper,  and  it  was  too  dark  to  see  more  than 
vague  shapes  as  the  American  column  passed. 
But  suddenly  it  became  known  to  some  of  the 
Frenchmen  that  it  was  an  American  regiment 
going  into  the  trenches,  and  the  word  passed 
on  down  the  long  row  <3f  waiting  figures.  A 
whisper,  "The  American  Relief  1",  "the  Amer- 
icans!!", went  from  mouth  to  mouth  like  the 
rustling  of  leaves  when  a  wind  sweeps 
through  a  forest.  And  at  that,  without  a 
definite  order,  every  Frenchman  saluted  and 
stood  at  attention  until  the  Americans  had 
passed.  That  is  the  spirit  with  which  France 
is  receiving  us,  and  that  is  the  gratitude  which 
has  put  us  on  our  honor  to  prove  ourselves 
worthy  of  so  much  friendliness  and  faith. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  GERMAN  ATROCITIES 

MOST  Americans  do  not  appreciate  the  hor- 
rors of  this  war.  No  longer  is  there  any  of  the 
sportsmanship  that  formerly  existed  in  war- 
fare. It  is  now  merely  a  question  of  how  to 
kill  as  many  of  the  enemy  as  possible.  The 
days  at  Petersburg,  in  Virginia,  when  the  sol- 
diers of  the  Northern  Army  in  our  Civil  War, 
exchanged  coffee  with  their  enemies  for 
Southern  tobacco,  do  not  exist  in  the  present 
war.  That  is  not  Germany's  method  of  fight- 
ing. Her  soldiers  are  taught  to  hate  and  to 
kill. 

I  confess,  when  I  went  abroad,  that  I 
believed  that  the  stories  of  German  cruelties 
were  exaggerated.  I  though  that  perhaps  a 
few  criminals  brought  into  the  army  by  uni- 
versal conscription,  had  perpetrated  crimes  in 
isolated  instances  which  should  not  be  laid  to 
the  German  armies  as  a  whole.  After  my  stay 
on  the  British  and  French  fronts,  I  believe  the 
terrible  stories  related  to  me,  and  what  is  more, 


176  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

I  believe  that  these  cruelties  are  practiced 
with  the  knowledge  and  with  the  encourage- 
ment and  frequently  at  the  instigation  of  the 
German  commanding  officers.  One  wonders 
that  human  beings  can  be  so  bestial  and  cruel. 
From  every  direction  the  evidence  is  accumu- 
lating that  the  German  excesses  are  part  of  a 
great  governmental  plan  to  overawe  their 
adversaries  by  terrifying  acts  of  cruelty.  The 
killing  of  the  women  and  children  of  London 
and  other  parts  of  England  by  aircraft,  surely 
is  not  the  work  of  any  unauthorized  persons. 
The  shelling  of  life  boats  filled  with  women 
and  children  and  civilian  passengers,  the  sub- 
merging of  a  submarine  with  captives  on  its 
deck  from  whom  all  life  preservers  have  been 
taken,  all  these  cruelties  must  be  done  under 
the  orders  of  the  officers  commanding  the  sub- 
marines. The  burning  of  French  and  Belgian 
towns  accompanied  by  a  systematic  slaughter 
of  the  inhabitants,  must  have  been  done 
because  of  orders  of  German  officers  present. 
On  all  sides  the  evidence  piles  up  that  the 
awful  cruelties  are  part  of  a  huge  precon- 
ceived plan. 

In  the  Somme,  the  Germans  for  some  time 
customarily  shelled  the  churches  on  Sunday 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  177 

morning,  when  they  thought  the  people  would 
be  at  worship.  Hospitals  are  a  favorite  object 
of  German  attack  by  aircraft,  which  turn  their 
machine  gun  fire  on  the  men  and  women 
nurses  with  the  patients  they  are  in  the  act  of 
trying  to  save.  A  German  aeroplane  will  fol- 
low an  ambulance  and  try  to  kill,  with 
machine  gun  fire,  the  occupants  and  the 
driver.  In  the  Somme,  all  captured  inhabi- 
tants were  taken  into  slavery,  and  made  to 
work  back  of  the  German  lines.  Prisoners 
were  made  to  work  under  shell  fire  in  the  Ger- 
man front  trenches.  In  fact,  the  British  cap- 
tured Russians  who  had  been  taken  prisoners 
by  the  Germans  on  the  East  front,  and  were 
being  made  to  work  under  fire  of  the  British 
guns  in  the  front  line  trenches  on  the  West 
front. 

I  was  told  by  both  British  and  French  sol- 
diers that  the  Germans  killed  the  wounded 
of  their  opponents  and  generally  only  take 
prisoners,  in  the  case  of  the  British  and 
French,  when  a  large  number  surrender  at 
once.  If  a  small  number  of  British  and 
French  surrender,  they  are  usually  killed. 
Concerning  the  killing  of  wounded,  Captain 
Ward,  who  talked  German  as  well  as  he  did 


178  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

English,  asked  one  of  the  many  German  pris- 
oners he  saw,  how  he  liked  being  captured. 
His  answer  was,  "I  am  glad  to  be  captured." 
In  answer  to  the  question,  "How  were  you 
caught?",  he  answered:  "The  British  will 
spare  you,  if  you  act  fast.  I  was  near  the 
mouth  of  a  dugout  and  when  the  British  came, 
I  got  my  hands  up  fast  and  they  let  me  out  but 
they  threw  in  a  bomb  and  killed  all  my  com- 
rades. But  I  do  not  blame  them  for  killing  us 
when  they  can  for  <we  are  instructed  to  kill  all 
their  wounded." 

It  is  a  usual  happening  for  a  wounded  Ger- 
man not  only  to  shoot  passing  British  or 
French  soldiers,  but  also  the  person  who  has 
just  bound  his  wounds  or  given  him  water. 
When  the  British  make  a  charge,  Germans 
will  raise  their  hands  and  cry  "Kamerad," 
and  then  shoot  in  their  backs,  the  men  who 
have  just  passed  and  spared  their  lives.  We 
have  all  heard  the  story  of  the  Canadian  Scot- 
tish. Several  of  the  Canadian  Scottish  who 
were  captured  by  the  Germans  were  fright- 
fully mutilated  and  sent  back  to  their  own 
lines.  The  Canadians  were  wild  with  rage, 
and  when  they  were  permitted  to  charge,  they 
swept  everything  before  them.  As  they  cap- 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  179 

tured  the  German  trench,  they  saw  another  of 
their  men,  a  sergeant,  crucified  with  bayonets 
through  the  palms  of  his  hands,  and  still  liv- 
ing.    I  mentioned  this  to  an  American  who 
had  served  with  the  Canadians  and  had  been 
present  when  this  happened,  and  he  laughed, 
a  not  pleasant  laugh,  "One  crucified,"  said  he, 
"there  have  been  dozens."    It  is  said  that  the 
Canadians  die  fighting,  they  never  surrender. 
A  French  captain  told  me  that  some  of  his 
men  were  taken  into  a  building  where  kero- 
sene was  poured  upon  them  and  they  were 
burned  alive.    A  French  officer  told  me  that 
a  company  of  his  regiment  became  separated 
from  the  others  and  was  captured  by  the  Ger- 
mans.   Some  time  later  the  French  found  the 
bodies  of  these  men  in  a  trench,  each  with  the 
head  cut  off  and  placed  on  the  body,  and  inde- 
scribable indecendies  practiced.    There  were 
no  other  marks  on  the  bodies,  showing  that 
they  had   not  been   killed   fighting.      Their 
throats  had  been  cut  after  they  had  been  taken 
prisoners. 

A  French  officer  told  me  how  he  and  sev- 
eral of  his  men  were  taken  prisoners  by  the 
Germans  during  the  first  of  the  gas  attacks, 
when  the  gas  was  not  as  strong  as  it  is  now. 


180  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

He  became  insensible  and  awoke  next  day  a 
prisoner  with  seven  of  his  companions,  while 
a  German  surgeon  was  working  over  him. 
While  he  was  lying  in  that  position,  German 
soldiers  came  in  and  began  killing  his  com- 
panions. He  said  one  French  boy,  nineteen 
years  of  age,  begged  the  soldier,  whose  rifle 
was  pointed  at  his  forehead,  not  to  kill  him  for 
the  sake  of  his  mother.  The  officer  told  me 
that  he  turned  his  head  away  when  the  shot 
was  fired.  He  added  that  all  his  companions 
were  killed,  but  he  was  spared,  perhaps, 
because  he  was  an  officer,  and  perhaps  because 
a  German  surgeon  was  working  over  him  at 
the  time.  This  surgeon  was  an  officer,  and  yet 
he  made  no  attempt  to  stop  his  men  from  kill- 
ing the  prisoners.  As  the  French  officer  said 
in  his  description  to  me,  "These  men  were  not 
killed  fighting  or  when  they  tried  to  sur- 
render on  the  battlefield,  they  were  murdered 
the  day  after  they  had  been  disarmed  and  their 
surrender  accepted." 

One  hardly  wonders  that  certain  of  the  regi- 
ments of  the  allies  that  have  suffered,  refuse 
to  take  prisoners.  This  is  not  as  bad  as  it 
seems,  for  they  let  their  adversaries  die  fight- 
ing and  with  a  chance  of  killing  them  or  they 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  181 

pass  prisoners  along  to  a  regiment  that  does 
take  prisoners,  so  that  their  boast  will  be  kept 
true. 

The  cruelty  of  the  Germans  has  brought 
forth  repayment  in  kind.  An  American,  in 
the  Canadians,  who  had  been  several  times 
fired  at  by  wounded  Germans  whom  he  had 
forborn  killing,  told  me  that  he  knew  how  to 
keep  a  wounded  German  quiet.  I  asked  him 
what  was  his  method.  His  answer  was,  "I 
just  put  a  bomb  under  him  and  then  he  will 
keep  quiet  enough."  I  asked  about  the  ambu- 
lance men,  "Don't  they  get  blown  up  by  that 
same  bomb  when  they  try  to  move  the  wounded 
man?"  "Oh,  no!"  he  answered,  "the  ambu- 
lance men  have  four  seconds  to  get  out  of  the 
way." 

A  French  officer  told  me  a  case  of  retalia- 
tion by  a  French  soldier  who  had  seen  the 
bodies  of  several  of  his  friends  who  had  been 
wounded  and  killed  and  then  mutilated.  A 
wounded  German  called  for  water.  The 
Frenchman,  crazed  by  what  he  had  seen, 
seized  the  wounded  German  and  hurled  him  in 
a  shell  hole  half  full  of  water  and  drowned 
him,  yelling  at  the  same  time,  "Yes,  I  will  give 
you  all  the  water  you  wish." 


182  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

Many  Americans  have  said  that  they  have 
lived  in  Germany,  and  that  they  cannot  believe 
that  the  Germans  are  as  cruel  as  pictured.  The 
ordinary  German  that  they  have  met  and 
learned  to  like  as  a  friend,  does  not  seem  to  be 
a  heartless  murderer.  I,  too,  have  lived  in 
Germany,  and  I  have  liked  many  Germans 
and  have  admired  the  efficiency  of  the  German 
nation.  But  these  facts  do  not  cause  me  to  close 
my  eyes  to  Germany's  faults.  The  reason 
why  the  German  soldiers  are  cruel  arises  from 
the  point  of  view  of  their  rulers  and  from  their 
form  of  government.  If  Germany  had  con- 
quered the  world,  the  men  of  this  class  would 
have  been  the  supreme  rulers  everywhere. 
The  remainder  of  the  German  population  is 
controlled  both  by  an  iron  discipline  and  by 
deceit.  The  remainder  of  the  German  popu- 
lation is  what  is  meant  by  the  commonly  used 
term,  "the  German  people."  The  German 
people  were  told  by  their  rulers,  when  the 
German  armies  first  moved,  that  the  French 
and  Russians  had  already  invaded  Germany, 
and  that  the  British  were  in  Belgium.  Diaries 
of  soldiers  show  that  the  ones  invading  Bel- 
gium, were  stung  to  fury  by  their  officers  who 
told  them  that  the  Belgian  inhabitants  were 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  183 

poisoning  the  wells  and  murdering  their  com- 
rades in  other  barbarous  ways.  There  is  no 
question  but  that  these  stories,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  some  firing  by  civilians,  which  could 
be  easily  controlled,  were  entirely  invented  by 
the  German  officers  to  enrage  their  men  with 
intent  to  cause  them  to  commit  excesses. 
Diaries  of  soldiers  show  that  it  was  the  officers 
who  ordered  their  men  to  kill  the  enemy 
wounded  and  prisoners.  In  the  heat  of  battle, 
it  is  very  easy  for  soldiers  to  obey  such  com- 
mands. Atrocities  provoked  some  retaliation, 
and  this  made  it  yet  easier  for  the  German  sol- 
diers to  continue  as  they  began. 

The  frightfulness  begins  with  the  German 
Emperor,  who  commanded  his  soldiers  going 
to  China,  to  spare  no  one,  to  kill  all  prisoners, 
to  emulate  Atilla  the  Hun,  to  create  such  ter- 
ror in  China  that  a  Chinaman  would  fear  for 
years  to  come  to  look  askance  at  a  German. 
From  his  own  words,  his  soldiers  are  now 
called  "Huns"  by  the  British.  His  Kingdom 
of  Prussia  has  grown  great  by  the  robbery  and 
forcible  annexation  of  the  territory  of  his 
neighbors.  His  throne  and  power  are  based 
on  bloody  wars. 

The  only  limit  of  German  barbarity  is  set 


184  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

by  a  fear  of  retaliation  by  her  enemies. 
Recently,  I  was  asked  why  Germany  had  not 
tried  to  spread  disease  germs,  which  would 
cause  epidemics  among  her  enemies.  My 
answer  was  that  Germany  had  tried  spreading 
disease  germs  in  Roumania,  and  would  do  the 
same  thing  on  the  West  front,  were  it  possible 
to  do  so,  and  provided  that  she  did  not  fear 
retaliation. 

Germany  has  reduced  cruelty  to  a  science 
and  her  method  of  reasoning  is  much  as  fol- 
lows :  War  is  legalized  murder  or  the  killing 
of  as  many  of  your  adversaries  in  a  short  time 
as  possible;  any  means  to  bring  about  the 
winning  of  the  war  are  justified  in  warfare; 
wounded  enemy  soldiers  should  be  killed 
because  you  are  exhausting  their  man  power 
without  having  to  guard  or  feed  anyone;  your 
own  wounded  men  should  continue  fighting 
for  they  then  continue  to  be  of  value;  for  a 
wounded  man  to  await  his  opportunity  and 
then  kill  the  man  who  has  perhaps  bound  his 
wounds,  is  all  right,  for  he  is  continuing  to  ful- 
fill the  purpose  of  his  being  in  the  army, 
namely,  killing  the  enemy  and  to  accomplish 
that  end  he  may  use  any  necessary  artifice;  the 
inhabitants  may  be  taken  into  slavery  for  their 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  185 

\ 

labor  is  needed  in  factories  and  on  fortifica- 
tions ;  anything  is  justified,  according  to  Ger- 
man opinion,  which  will  win  the  war  for 
Germany. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  ENEMY  IN  THE  HOUSE 

IT  IS  difficult  for  a  Frenchman  to  under- 
stand the  melting  pot  of  America.  It  is  some- 
thing new  in  the  history  of  the  migration  of 
races.  To  go  and  live  in  France  and  to  take 
out  French  citizenship  papers  does  not  make 
a  Frenchman  any  more  than  residence  in 
China  would  make  him  a  Chinaman;  and  it 
is  almost  impossible  for  the  French  to  under- 
stand that  living  in  America  does  actually 
change  the  individual  into  an  American.  Just 
what  quality  in  our  civilization  makes  this 
possible,  we  ourselves,  do  not  understand. 

In  France,  all  men  of  German  birth  or 
descent,  departed  and  joined  the  German 
Army  or  remained  as  spies  in  France.  There 
were  sons  of  many  mixed  marriages  between 
French  and  German  persons  who  entered  the 
French  Army.  I  was  told  that  everyone  of 
these  men  turned  out  to  be  a  traitor  to  France. 
The  prejudice  is  so  great  that  the  French 


188  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

believe  that  no  one  of  German  origin  can  be 
trusted. 

In  Great  Britain,  the  situation  is  much  the 
same.  Many  Germans  resided  in  England, 
and  later,  they  furnished  the  guides  for  many 
of  the  early  Zeppelin  raids.  Others  remained 
as  spies.  Many  others  claimed  to  be  loyal  and 
undoubtedly  were  loyal.  So  many  of  them, 
however,  were  not  loyal,  that  the  good  suf- 
fered with  the  bad  and  Britain  would  trust 
none  of  them.  The  country  is  over-run  with 
spies,  and  the  authorities  intend  to  root  them 
out  no  matter  who  suffers. 

Even  Americans  who  have  served  in  the 
British  or  French  Armies  question  the  use  of 
men  of  recent  German  origin.  An  American 
with  the  Canadians  told  me  that  in  his  regi- 
ment there  was  one  man  whose  father  was 
German  and  his  mother  English.  He  claimed 
to  be  very  bitter  against  the  Germans.  One 
day,  from  the  trenches,  a  wounded  British 
officer  was  seen  in  "No  Man's  Land"  and  this 
man  volunteered  to  go  and  rescue  him.  He 
crawled  from  the  British  trenches  towards  the 
wounded  man,  passed  him  and  kept  right  on 
into  the  German  lines.  Thereafter  the  Ger- 
man guns  were  given  the  exact  range  of  where 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  189 

his  old  companions  were  stationed  and,  as  a 
result,  a  Major  of  the  regiment  with  a  couple 
of  staff  officers  were  killed  besides  a  large 
number  of  other  soldiers. 

The  experiences  of  France  and  Great 
Britain  are  due  to  many  reasons.  The  coun- 
tries are  not  a  long  distance  from  Germany 
and  it  is  not  difficult  for  their  German  resi- 
dents to  maintain  contact  with  their  old  home. 
Being  so  close,  both  have  many  German 
visitors  or  temporary  residents  who  do  not 
intend  to  give  up  their  German  citizenship  or 
to  reside  permanently  away  from  Germany. 
These  temporary  residents  keep  the  permanent 
residents  in  constant  touch  with  Germany.  In 
addition,  neither  France  nor  Great  Britain 
expect  a  German  to  become  naturalized.  The 
European  countries  try  to  hold  a  citizen  to  his 
allegiance  in  no  matter  what  other  country  he 
may  be  living.  All  of  the  European  countries 
have  disliked  the  actions  of  the  United  States 
in  naturalizing  their  subjects. 

In  the  United  States  the  situation  is  very 
different.  America  is  so  far  away  from 
Germany  that  most  German  settlers  go  there 
intending  to  remain  permanently.  Instead  of 
expecting  these  settlers  to  preserve  any  senti- 


190  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

ment  for  the  land  of  their  birth,  the  United 
States  has  naturalized  them  and  has  at  once 
demanded  their  full  allegiance  even  as  against 
the  land  in  which  they  were  born.  In  the 
United  States  a  divided  allegiance  is  not 
recognized. 

This  attitude  has  led  to  some  misunder- 
standing. The  French  seriously  believed,  as 
late  as  1915,  that  if  we  were  to  go  to  war  with 
Germany  we  should  have  on  our  hands  a  dis- 
loyal element  as  large  as  our  German  popula- 
tion, and  it  is  a  constant  source  of  wonder  to 
both  the  British  and  the  French  that  so  many 
of  our  army  in  France  are  the  children  and 
grandchildren  of  German  parents.  They 
would  not  wonder  if  they  knew  more  about 
our  history.  The  first  large  influx  of  Germans 
was  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
prior  to  our  revolution.  The  descendants  of 
these  men  are  the  same  as  any  other  real 
Americans  and  the  only  thing  German  about 
them  is  perhaps  their  family  name.  Germans 
came  to  this  country  in  large  numbers  prior 
to  and  following  the  German  unrest  in  the 
forties.  These  men  and  the  ones  who  followed 
them,  furnished  many  soldiers  in  the  Northern 
armies  in  the  Civil  War  and  saved  at  least  one 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  191 

State  to  the  Union.  There  is  no  question 
about  the  loyalty  of  the  descendants  of  these 
men  for  their  ancestors  came  to  the  United 
States  because  of  sympathy  for  an  unsuccess- 
ful revolt  against  the  very  things  that  the 
United  States  is  fighting  against  now.  Prac- 
tically no  men  such  as  these  settled  in  France 
or  Great  Britain. 

Some  years  ago,  I  lived  for  about  two  years 
in  a  city  in  Prussia.  Placards  were  posted 
urging  the  people  to  settle  in  America  and 
setting  forth  how  much  higher  wages  could  be 
earned  there.  The  placards  contained  the 
following  significant  statement  of  which  I  give 
a  free  translation,  "You  can  be  just  as  much  a 
German  in  America  as  in  Germany."  The 
United  States  is  a  unit  in  believing  that  any 
former  German  who  tries  to  carry  out  that 
doctrine  is  no  American;  he  is  an  enemy. 
Then  there  is  another  kind  of  German:  the 
one  who  has  come  over  to  blow  up  our  muni- 
tion works,  to  start  strikes,  to  encourage  sab- 
botage  among  workers,  to  influence  us  through 
our  press  to  our  damage,  to  get  us  into  war 
with  Mexico,  to  encourage  a  hatred  for  Japan, 
to  stir  up  South  America  against  us,  to  do 
anything  and  everything  that  will  hurt  us  and 


192  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

help  Germany.  There  is  a  quick  way  of 
handling  such  persons  used  by  France  which 
our  Government  may  be  forced  to  employ. 

The  United  States  holds  a  high  standard  for 
her  citizens  of  foreign  extraction  to  follow. 
Any  German-American  who  says  that  he 
would  defend  this  country  were  it  attacked, 
but  will  not  take  any  part  in  the  war  in 
Europe,  is  set  down  as  offering  a  paltry  excuse 
to  this,  his  country.  Our  history  has  taught  us 
that  members  of  many  of  the  older  American 
families  had  ancestors  who  were  Englishmen 
and  who  fought  the  land  of  their  birth  and 
won  the  independence  of  this  country.  The 
descendants  of  these  men  consider  that  it  is 
not  too  much  to  ask  a  man  of  German  birth 
to  preserve  that  independence  from  attack  by 
Germany. 

I  once  met  a  French  officer  who  had  no 
French  blood  in  him  at  all.  His  father  and 
mother  were  both  English  and  had  been 
brought  to  France  when  children,  and  he  had 
been  born  and  reared  in  France.  He  consid- 
ered himself  thoroughly  French.  One  day  we 
were  talking  about  what  his  attitude  would  be 
in  the  event  that  war  should  sometime  arise 
between  France  and  Great  Britain.  He  ques- 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  193 

tioned  whether  he  would  fight  against  Great 
Britain  under  such  circumstances  and  he  mar- 
veled when  I  told  him  that  Americans  of 
German  birth  were  supposed  to  be  as  ready  to 
fight  Germany  as  any  other  American. 

Only  persons  who  have  been  to  the  United 
States  can  understand  our  point  of  view.  A 
young  Scotch  officer  told  me  the  following: 
"I  visited  America  about  five  years  ago.  I 
stayed  with  an  uncle  in  Pennsylvania.  He 
and  his  wife  were  Scotch.  Say,  but  I  admire 
the  sentiment  you  teach  in  your  schools.  My 
young  cousin  got  talking  to  me  about  America. 
I  referred  to  him  as  being  Scotch  and  he  got 
quite  angry.  He  said  he  was  an  American 
and  there  was  nothing  Scotch  about  him.  He 
said  it  made  no  difference  from  where  one's 
ancestors  came,  if  one  became  an  American 
he  was  as  much  of  an  American  as  any  of  the 
oldest  settlers.  Why  that  boy  was  really 
Scotch  on  both  sides  and  he  actually  talked 
like  that  and  believed  what  he  said.  I  admire 
your  schools  because  they  are  teaching  that  a 
boy  must  be  an  American  and  that  he  cannot 
be  something  else  at  the  same  time,  and  your 
boys  believe  what  they  are  being  taught." 

I  think  that  the  young  Scotch  lieutenant 


194  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

correctly  set  forth  the  American  point  of  view. 
Nearly  every  regiment  going  to  France  has 
men  on  its  rolls  whose  names  show  their  Ger- 
man ancestry.  Let  not  the  loyal  man  of 
German  extraction  suffer  for  the  sins  of  the 
disloyal,  but  when  the  latter  is  caught  let  him 
suffer  quick  and  severe  punishment  as  an 
example  to  all  spies  and  traitors. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

WE  HAVE  COME 

WHEN  THE  French  officers  who  had  been 
assigned  to  instruct  the  army  of  the  United 
States  in  France  first  inspected  the  regulars, 
they  expected  to  find  seasoned  troops  who  were 
well  trained  and  organized  according  to  mod- 
ern theories.  They  found,  instead,  regiments 
largely  composed  of  recruits  and  lacking 
a  large  part  of  the  training  and  equipment 
required  for  modern  warfare. 

After  our  army  arrived  in  France,  the  num- 
ber of  men  in  the  companies  was  changed,  as 
well  as  the  number  in  the  regiments,  brigades, 
divisions  and  corps.  Many  supply  and  auxil- 
iary units  had  to  be  formed.  There  was  no 
provision  for  grenadiers,  bombardiers  or  other 
like  positions  necessary  for  modern  infantry 
fighting. 

They  did  not  have  any  conception  of  how 
to  meet  or  how  to  use  gas  or  liquid  fire.  Their 
method  of  fighting  with  the  bayonet  was  at 
once  abandoned  for  the  British  system.  They 


196  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

were  ignorant  of  trench  warfare  as  practiced 
abroad.  To  send  such  troops  into  battle  would 
have  been  to  send  them  to  destruction.  The 
only  thing  was  done  that  could  be  done.  All 
through  Eastern  France,  towns  were  given 
over  to  the  American  soldiers  and  there  they 
began  to  learn  the  modern  way  of  making  war. 

I  have  only  mentioned  a  few  of  the  troubles 
of  the  army  when  it  first  arrived  in  France. 
The  persons  in  control  of  the  government  in 
Germany,  openly  stated  to  their  people  that 
it  would  make  no  difference  to  them  in  the 
war  whether  the  United  States  came  into  it 
or  not,  that  in  military  effectiveness  the  United 
States  was  about  equal  to  Roumania.  They 
stated  that  it  was  rather  an  advantage  to  have 
the  United  States  among  Germany's  enemies, 
because  it  was  powerless  to  fight,  but  could 
pay  Germany's  bills  after  it  had  been  con- 
quered. Now  all  this  is  changed. 

The  personnel  of  the  American  Army  has 
saved  the  situation.  The  men  of  our  splendid 
forces  are  like  those  of  the  troops  of  the  best 
foreign  regiments.  Officers  and  men  are  intel- 
ligent, willing  and  most  enthusiastic.  Their 
record  has  shown  that  they  will  equal  or  sur- 
pass any  of  the  other  armies,  for  in  spite  of 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  197 

their  handicaps,  they  started  with  many 
advantages  not  possessed  by  the  others.  Not 
only  have  most  of  the  Americans  a  fair  edu- 
cation, but  they  have  within  their  number 
many  highly  trained  technical  men.  The  qual- 
ity of  the  officers  obtained  from  the  training 
camps  has  been  of  the  best.  The  conscripts 
have  surpassed  everyone's  expectations  and 
are  gloriously  vindicating  our  hopes  for  them. 

The  American  Army  has  the  additional 
advantage  of  being  able  to  learn  the  science  of 
warfare  without  the  necessity  of  undergoing 
the  costly  mistakes  of  its  allies.  Both  France 
and  Great  Britain  have  sent  large  numbers 
of  their  best  officers  to  the  army  in  France  to 
act  as  instructors.  Realizing  that  it  knew 
nothing  of  modern  war-making,  the  American 
Army  in  France  began  its  military  education 
by  first  learning  elementary  principles  before 
trying  to  learn  the  more  complex  ones.  Slowly 
but  surely,  General  Pershing  is  turning  his 
men  into  trained  soldiers. 

The  American  soldiers  have  another  advan- 
tage in  that  their  moral  conditions  are  of  the 
highest.  The  officers  and  men  of  the  Ameri- 
can Army  are  worked  very  hard,  get  few 
leaves  of  absence,  and  practically  never  get  a 


198  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

chance  to  go  to  a  large  city  like  Paris.  The 
painted  women  of  Paris  by  censor  get  few  op- 
portunities to  get  at  the  Americans.  The 
greatest  encouragement  to  immorality  was  the 
excessive  pay  given  to  the  American  enlisted 
soldier  in  France.  The  French  private  sol- 
dier received  five  cents  a  day  while  the  Ameri- 
can private  soldier  was  paid  thirty  dollars 
a  month  or  approximately  one  dollar  a 
day.  It  was  practically  impossible  for  a  soldier 
to  spend  legitimately  the  French  equivalent  of 
thirty  dollars  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  francs 
a  month,  and  General  Pershing  sent  to  the 
United  States  a  request  that  his  men  be  not 
given  so  much  money.  As  a  result  of  his  com- 
plaint, a  soldier  is  now  made  to  save  a  part  of 
his  pay,  or  if  he  has  a  wife  or  family,  a  part 
is  paid  to  her  or  to  them  for  her  or  their 
support. 

The  foreign  armies  marvel  at  the  abste- 
miousness of  the  Americans.  Wine  is  issued 
to  the  French  soldiers  as  part  of  their  ration. 
The  British  soldiers  are  issued  rum.  Our 
soldiers  are  encouraged  not  to  drink  at  all. 
The  soldiers  of  the  other  nations  do  not  admire 
the  non-drinking  of  the  American  soldiers; 
they  rather  look  upon  their  point  of  view  as 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  199 

something  queer  in  a  person  who  otherwise 
is  very  sensible. 

I  told  many  French  and  British  soldiers 
about  the  sixth  division  of  the  National  Guard 
with  which  I  was  stationed  on  the  Mexican 
border  during  the  summer  and  early  fall  of 
1916.  I  told  an  English  Lieutenant-Colonel 
that  during  its  tour  of  duty  on  the  border,  the 
commander  of  this  division  had  prevented 
all  its  men  from  drinking  and  with  the 
co-operation  of  the  civil  authorities  had  closed 
up  all  the  vice  resorts,  and  as  a  result  his  men 
were  morally  good  in  every  way.  His  com- 
ment was  "Poor  fellows!" 

The  discipline  maintained  by  General 
Pershing  is  very  strict.  He  believes  in  watch- 
ing for  and  correcting  small  defects,  and  he 
does  not  hesitate  to  set  right  any  person  no 
matter  who  he  may  be.  The  officers  and  men 
are  afraid  of  him,  and  with  good  cause.  The 
General  has  decreed  that  no  married  officer 
may  have  his  wife  in  France.  No  soldier  will 
be  permitted  to  return  to  the  United  States 
unless  on  duty,  or  unless  his  term  of  active 
service  is  at  an  end.  Every  officer  going  to. 
France  does  so  for  the  duration  of  the  war.. 
The  officers  and  men  of  the  American  army 


200  WAR  TIME  FRANCE 

are  worked  hard,  but  they  are  cheerful  and 
are  looking  forward  to  their  turn  at  the  front. 
Foreign  officers  marvel  at  their  aptitude  and 
good  nature  in  their  work.  In  the  American 
army  camps  in  France  the  seriousness  of  the 
war  is  fully  appreciated  and  the  success  of 
our  troops  in  battle  shows  the  result  of  their 
careful  training. 

But  we  must  not  relax  for  an  instant  our 
efforts  at  home.  We  are  going  to  win  the 
war,  because  we  are  doing  the  one  thing  neces- 
sary to  win  it.  We  are  sending  abroad  over- 
whelming numbers  of  troops  and  supplies. 
Our  troops,  young  and  fresh,  are  more  than 
a  match  for  the  Germans,  man  for  man. 
What  we  have  to  fear  is  the  German  organi- 
zation. If  we  will  put  into  the  field,  as  we 
easily  can,  twice  as  many  troops  as  are  opposite 
to  us  on  the  western  front  the  victory  will  be 
won  with  comparatively  small  loss  of  life. 
When  the  Germany  army  does  break  it  will 
go  all  to  pieces.  Practically  ever  German 
who  can  carry  a  gun  is  on  the  west  front 
while  women  and  prisoners  do  the  work  at 
home.  The  British  Army  cannot  supply 
surplus  troops.  Their  armies  are  scattered 
throughout  the  globe.  We  alone  can  furnish 


WAR  TIME  FRANCE  201 

troops  until  we  out-number  the  Germans  two 
or  three  to  one.  When  that  happens,  Germany 
will  collapse  and  there  will  be  no  further 
question  of  dealing  with  the  Kaiser.  The 
fighting  on  our  front  has  shown  that  our  men 
are  anxious  and  eager  to  get  into  the  fight, 
whereas  the  armies  of  all  the  other  belligerents 
are  tired  of  the  war,  the  Germans  no  less  than 
the  French  and  the  British.  But  we  are 
fresh,  we  are  young  and  we  will  win  the  war. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  5O  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


JAN  30  1934 

DEC  06  1988 

AUTODIS&SEP06'88 

i.i»  ••  i    Hini/i  7  ':\:i 

VB  21416' 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


